Nameless Desires
by Jelp
Summary: Naruto looked at Sasuke, 'I want to know why,' Naruto's voice lowered to barely a whisper, 'why on that night did you tie me up and pound into me so relentlessly...' SasuNaru, Yaoi
1. Chapter 1: Why?

I decided to start re-editing this fic after it was stolen and posted on another site. Thankfully my reposted fic was deleted. Stealing fics is wrong and really _stupid_. People knew it was my fic, and the person got a lot of hate mail from friends and reviewers. Thanks to everyone who helped me when dealing with the thief! _This chapter has been edited and reposted. With that said, that doesn't mean that a few errors didn't escape my notice. Let me know if you find anything._

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 1: Why?**

There was something about looking at the man who had once been such a positive part of his childhood, the same man who had violated his heart, sitting there, so unconcernedly that made Uzumaki Naruto's body go numb with hatred. Naruto stared, still holding the doorknob he had just pushed open. As his anger rose, Naruto squeezed the doorknob so tight that the cold metal was pinching his hand. He stared at the older man, as the man known as Uchiha Sasuke sat in his desk chair unconcerned. There was paperwork spread over the mahogany desk, and the study he was in was littered in drab browns, the only coloring coming from the different shades of book covers upon the shelves, though all of them seemed to be faded and looked dreary.

The little bit of white in the room came from the papers that Sasuke was working on, his head bent low, looking at the words intently, silky black bangs falling into eyes of the same color. He continued to work, but he must have heard the door open because Naruto had made sure to let Sasuke know that he was there by opening the door violently. Still, Sasuke sat ignoring him, not bothering to look up.

Naruto must have stood staring at Sasuke for a full minute, his fists clenched, one around the doorknob, the other close to his side, trying hard to suppress the swelling of emotions that seemed to rise from his stomach and had begun to boil inside his chest.

"Do you have an appointment, or are you just going to stand there all day staring at me?" Sasuke's cold drawl finally broke Naruto out of his rigid stance even though Sasuke hadn't even bothered to look up at him. Naruto moved swiftly across the study, reached across Sasuke's desk, grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt, and vehemently pulled the older man out of his seat. The large desk chair Sasuke had been sitting in toppled behind him with a loud crashing noise.

"You're a fucked up bastard, you know that?" Naruto gritted out his voice low and barely recognizable as his own, and Sasuke finally bothered to look at the man that had forcibly stood him up. His facial expression showed no change with being violently lifted out of his seat, and he casually grabbed a pressure point on Naruto's arm, making Naruto release him. Sasuke's cold eyes settled on Naruto as Naruto rubbed his sore arm.

"Sir, I don't know what your problem is, but I suggest you leave now before I have security throw you out," Sasuke's voice was calm, but his eyes stared at Naruto, glaring at him, his nonverbal threat more dangerous than a jagged knife.

"You always said I was welcome here, or don't you remember me, Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked, saying Sasuke's name in a mock cheerful voice. Sasuke's entire demeanor changed as he heard Naruto's voice come out more "normally," finally recognizing the other man than had come into his study.

"Naruto?" Sasuke whispered as his eyes went wide while looking at the man before him. Sasuke could merely stare at Naruto as Naruto glared back at him.

"Uchiha-sama! Are you okay? I heard a crashing noise," a servant said, running into the room, looking back and forth between the two men, clearly seeing the tension between the two, and noticing the knocked over chair. "I'm sorry sir! I let him in without clarifying it with you. He said he was an old neighbor, and he made it sound like you two were close. I will have security come up from the grounds and escort him immediately if-"

"No need, Haruka," Sasuke said softly, his eyes never leaving Naruto's as the woman looked anxiously between the two men. "Leave, and make sure no one disturbs us. I'll buzz you if I need anything," Sasuke added, noticing the ever-increasing anxiety on the woman's face. She nodded hesitantly before turning to leave.

"I see you finally decided to get some housekeepers, and I guess a little extra security never hurt," Naruto said, somewhat bemusedly as the woman shut the door behind her.

"Yes. I was told my house was too big and empty for just me..." Sasuke said, trailing off as both he and Naruto were thrown mentally back in time, both reminiscing to over seven years before...

* * *

"You go get it!" Kenji hollered, the blond haired boy seemingly annoyed with the nervous looking Naruto. Naruto stood next to Kenji, and showed his frustration by running his hands through his blond hair that was just a few shades darker than Kenji's.

"No, you get it! You're the one who kicked it over there!" Naruto complained, trying to suppress the fear in his voice.

"But you're the foster kid, so you have to do what I say," Kenji, the fifteen year old told the younger thirteen year old. Naruto sighed, hating this. He had been in foster care for over five years now, and he had always hated it when he got stuck with families who already had kids. The kids usually felt like their parents were going to replace them or something and usually ended up treating Naruto like crap.

For example, the newest foster family, the Yamanaka family, had a son named Kenji who loved bossing Naruto around and scaring the crap out of him by showing him horror films or telling him ghost stories.

Unfortunately for Naruto, one of the scarier stories that Kenji had told him happened to entail the Uchiha house, the house that the two boys currently stood before: the same house that Kenji had just kicked their soccer ball over its hedge. According to one of Kenji's tales, this was a vacant (and haunted) house that had once belonged to a rich family, the Uchihas. The Uchihas used to have nine different families of their "clan" living within the same house, and the owner of the house had had two children: Itachi and Sasuke.

However, tragedy had struck the entire family nearly ten years ago. Apparently the oldest son Itachi had gone quite insane and killed all of his other family members, even his mother, father, and younger brother Sasuke.

Kenji said that no one lived there now, but had ended his story with, "You can still see the haunted ghost of the younger brother roaming through the house since the murder of his family ten years prior. You can even see lights on every now and then in the second to last window on the fifth floor, which of course had been the youngest son's room."

Now, as Naruto stood before the house, recalling that scary story, he looked at the setting sun that illuminated the mansion hauntingly. He didn't know why he had bothered to agree to play ball so far away from the house in the first place. He supposed it had been because he had been so excited that Kenji had finally asked him to go play with him that he didn't even think anything of it when the boy had led him to the top of the hill, walking over fifteen minutes towards the eerily empty area by the house at the edge of the woods.

This exact setting was like in one of those horror movies that Kenji loved to show him, and it was too liken to those movies for him to want to go inside the gate to get the ball. If zombies or vampires were there, he'd be done for.

Of course, Naruto now knew Kenji wanting to play with him had been a set-up for him to scare him. Kenji and he had kicked the soccer ball around the street a few times before Kenji had redirected his kick so that it flew over the overgrown hedges that surrounded the mansion. Naruto and Kenji had run to the front gate to see if they could see the soccer ball, but no such luck. And of course, there was only one gate that stood eerily right at the front of the house, the only visible way in and out of the yard. And it was early October to boot. All creepy things happened in October, everyone knew that.

Naruto looked around him, as a gust of wind seemed to blow out of nowhere, the wind chilling him to the bone. He looked above him waiting for crows to start attacking him or something because this was definitely like one of those horror flicks that Kenji had tricked him into watching. For some reason, he was forcibly reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's _The Birds,_ which was definitely not one of his favorite movies.

"You're not scared are you, baby?" Kenji taunted. Naruto looked at the older boy, knowing full well that Kenji knew he was terrified, and he also knew full well that he couldn't say that he was.

"Of course not! But I bet you are!" Naruto said, trying to use reverse psychology against Kenji to make him go get the ball instead.

"You ARE scared. I can tell because you always bawl at those horror movies," Kenji smirked.

"I-I do not!" Naruto said, his voice higher than normal due to a mixture of indignation as well as a hint of fear. "F-fine. I'll go get it!" Naruto said, sounding a lot more courageous than he knew he was at the time (which was saying something since he didn't sound courageous at all). Naruto marched up to the gate and gently pushed at it, hoping desperately that it would be locked. Instead, it swung forward easily. Naruto had been expecting it to creak like in the movies, but instead the hinges were soundless as they swung forward. Maybe it was because Naruto had been expecting it to make a creaking noise, but the silence of the gates somehow made everything seem even more ominous than before. Naruto glanced over his shoulder, watching as Kenji smirked at him. Naruto took a deep breath and entered the grounds. Another strong gust of wind blew past him.

Naruto jumped in fear as he heard a clank, the gate shutting with the force of the gust of wind. Even though the gate was not completely solid, it seemed to create a creepy silence between the large grounds and the mansion. In fact, he hadn't even been able to see the mansion properly, even through the gate. He turned around to scan the grounds for the missing ball, trying to rid himself of scary imagery.

"Where's the ball, where's the ball, where's the ball?" Naruto repeated his mantra as he walked through the grounds, wrenching his gaze from the scary looking house. Even though the hedges themselves looked overgrown on the outside, Naruto had time to notice that the rest of the yard looked immaculately kept, at least to an insider's perspective. The lawn had recently been cut, and the bushes were also trimmed. Yet there was supposed to be no one living here. He pushed the mundane thought from his mind as he looked wildly on the ground around him, cursing both the impressive size of the land, (which happened to be a lot bigger even than what it appeared to be from outside the house) as well as cursing Kenji who had clearly done this on purpose. Now where the hell was that ball?

"Are you looking for this?" A deep voice asked from behind him. Naruto, who had been facing towards the mansion, looked behind him. Back near the hedge line stood a man who was holding his soccer ball.

Naruto froze in place, taking in the pale skinned man in front of him dressed entirely in black. His eyes were even darker if possible than his pitch-black hair, and Naruto felt entranced as he looked into the man's eyes. Then reality seemed to hit Naruto as he realized he was standing in the _haunted_ Uchiha grounds, and that there was a person before him, not unlike the description he heard about the ghost Sasuke. So, Naruto did something very unmanly and pointed his finger at Sasuke and screamed like a little girl.

"GHOST!!" Naruto squealed in terror. Sasuke (for of course, it was Uchiha Sasuke) almost lost his cool and chucked the soccer ball back in Naruto's face. But, being Uchiha Sasuke, he did not lose his cool, and instead Sasuke's eye merely twitched in annoyance.

"If I were a ghost I wouldn't be able to hold your soccer ball, dobe," Sasuke said, trying to be logical to a person who clearly had illogical beliefs.

"Oh," Naruto said, sounding sheepish as Sasuke handed him the soccer ball. "Er, hehehehe. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you," Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head in nervous laughter, all fears forgotten at being scolded.

"Shouldn't you be going now, Naruto? And would you mind not kicking balls over my hedge next time?" Sasuke said coldly. Immediately Naruto went on the defensive.

"I didn't kick it! Kenji did! He did it on purpose because he knows I hate scary things, and he is always going on and on about how this place is haunted. He taunted me into coming here, and you know, I couldn't just let him taunt me and get away with it," Naruto said in a rush.

"Well you can let Kenji know that he failed. This place is not haunted, nor is it vacant, as many people believe. Just because I don't happen to socialize doesn't mean I was killed along with my family," Sasuke said irritably.

"Wait, wait. So, does that mean that _you_ are Uchiha Sasuke? But I thought everyone was murdered by Itachi! Does that mean you weren't shot or something?" Naruto asked, curiously since Sasuke hadn't bothered to introduce himself when he had. Sasuke's body went rigid at the mention of his brother's name.

"Yes. Although my brother may have been a psychopath, he seemed not have realized that I was at school and not yet at home when he decided to butcher my family. He shot and killed not only the rest of my family, but himself too before I even had returned home. Thank you so much for bringing up my horrific childhood," Sasuke said icily, his words pained in remembrance. "_N__ow_ _go!_" Sasuke bellowed, using his most intimidating voice that he used at his corporation to get the older, more weathered businessmen to quake in fear. He was sure he would have scared away this kid who had been petrified of him, thinking he was a ghost moments before. Instead, the kid just stood there looking forlorn.

"My parents were killed while I was still at school too. I came home and found them dead," Naruto said, his voice a low whisper, looking at the ground in sadness. Sasuke just looked at Naruto stunned. Whatever reaction he had expected from Naruto, a confession of a similar past was not one of them.

For some unexplainable reason, Sasuke felt light-headed at the thought. Never before had he met anyone who could possibly understand what he had gone through. No one else had ever confessed to coming home and finding their family dead. No one else had before been able to possibly understand what it was like to feel guilty for surviving something so tragic; no one could understand the guilt of just living when your family head died. Yet looking into this boy's eyes, eyes that had just been quaking in fear, and seeing that they were now filled with loneliness and sadness, Sasuke could see that this boy had eyes just like his.

It was one of those rare instances that such a simple statement held the power to connect two complete strangers. Loneliness has a funny way of making a person feel so isolated that finding another person, even a complete stranger, who finally understands how hellish that loneliness is that transfers the two people into immediate and irrevocable kindred spirits.

"We're the same," Sasuke whispered, his eyes going wide, feeling a strange, but sudden liking for this boy.

"Every time Kenji told me the story of what happened to the people in this house, to your family, it always reminded me of what happened to my parents. Sometimes – sometimes I wonder if they are haunting our old house. Sometimes, I wish they were, just that I could go back and see them one last time," Naruto said sadly, but then shook his head as if realizing the impossibility of his hope. Naruto continued, though he was not sure why, he felt as though he needed to get this off his chest. "My baby-sitter was this kid from down the street that everyone called Kyuubi. He used to love coming over to the house because he mooched off the food and the TV. He wasn't really _that_ bad of a baby-sitter by baby-sitter terms; I mean, he at least remembered to feed me dinner and stuff. Sill, my parents got pretty pissed when they came home and found him getting high on cocaine on the couch one of the nights they were out late. They called the cops on him," Naruto said, knowing he shouldn't be telling this to a complete stranger, but not finding the ability to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. The story had been bottled up inside of him too long, and the idea that there was someone else who could relate to his tragedy made the story somehow easier to tell.

"He was released on bail the next day, but apparently he was really pissed at my parents. He was planning on becoming a doctor, but with the drug bust on his record his life was pretty much screwed. So, a few days later, when he was high on whatever it was he was high on, he came to my house and shot my parents while I was doing after school stuff. So, my parents were killed because the guy messed up his own life by getting high in the first place, and then taking it out on my parents. If I hadn't stayed after school late that day, I probably would be dead now too," Naruto said, trailing off. There was a moment of silence before it was Sasuke's turn to be unable to hold his words back.

"My brother thought that our parents were holding him back. He was a genius, and everyone knew it. My parents always did what they thought was best for him in order to propel him forward, and they helped get him involved in everything that he wanted. He was never really disciplined, and he got away with a lot. I never knew that he was so upset by anything my parents did until I read his suicide note." Sasuke's eyes darkened as he remembered his past. He paused for a moment before continuing.

"I have never been able to figure out exactly what he meant in it, but the note that he left before killing everyone said that he was never given any limits from our parents, that they always just gave in. He wanted to be challenged, and he blamed my parents for handing him everything on a silver platter. His letter said he never felt like he earned anything himself. So, he went and killed our parents and my father's siblings and their families that were living here. I stayed late at school that day, just as you had on the day your parents had been killed. If I hadn't, I would probably have been killed as well. I guess he blamed my parents for not being able to allow him to test his true abilities," Sasuke said bitterly, looking at the sky as darkness began to take over, finding a strange sort of peace as he was able to connect to this boy through their shared tragedies.

"Kenji said that was ten years ago. How old were you?" Naruto asked.

"I was eight," Sasuke said.

"I was eight too," Naruto said thoughtfully, but suddenly his entire demeanor changed. "But man, you look older than eighteen. I would have pegged you for twenty-five, mister," he said, Naruto's voice turning from sad to happy in two seconds flat, giving Sasuke a mischievous grin. Sasuke was amazed to feel the transition from going to being sad one second to being teased the next somehow natural in the presence of this boy.

"Yeah, well you look like you're still eight, midget," Sasuke shot back, grinning as well, thinking about how infectious this kid's smile was. Naruto just stuck his tongue out at him.

"Not my fault!"

"Probably because you don't eat enough," Sasuke said, pinching Naruto's scrawny arm. "Want something to eat?" Sasuke asked. Naruto's face lit up.

"Can we have ramen?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"I doubt I have it, kid."

"Kid? I'm not a kid! And besides, you're only five years older than I am!" Naruto replied indignantly, dropping the soccer ball in the yard as he followed Sasuke up the front walk and up to the house, completely forgetting about Kenji waiting on the other side of the gate waiting for him.

Naruto peered in the house as Sasuke opened the front door, impressed by the sheer size of the magnificent living room. He was sure that Kenji's entire house could fit in this one room.

"Kitchen's towards the back and to the right," Sasuke said. Naruto looked around him, passing the stairs on the right before heading towards the back of the house where Sasuke said the kitchen was located

"Man, this place is huge. And you live here by yourself? You should really get some staff or something to live with you. It must get lonely here. This place is way too big and empty just for you."

"I like my privacy," Sasuke said, shrugging. "Actually, when I can, I prefer to work at home instead of at the office."

Sasuke felt a strange sort of connection to the boy that had stumbled into his yard. They were both orphans due to tragic murders; both occurring at the age of eight, and both had managed to survive because they happened to stay after school. Though Sasuke knew many other people that had similar interests as himself, none were usually anywhere close to his age. It was hard to find anyone he could relate to, and he had made sure to avoid most people anyway. He had thrown himself into his studies when his family had been murdered as sort of a means to forget the horrible tragedy that had befallen his childhood. Since he had already been two grades ahead for his age level at the time of his family's massacre, he had been pushed even further along in school with his ever-increasing vigor and hard work. He had no friends that he played with, and his weekends were devoted to self-discipline or schoolwork. By the time he was seventeen, not only had he finished high-school, but he had gone through an accelerated collegiate program and had graduated as valedictorian of Tokyo University, an impressive feat indeed.

He had gotten a job at the company that had once belonged to his father, trying to possibly overtake the head position in several years. He was very ambitious, and as in school, he had no friends to take his time away from achieving what he wanted. Even though some tried to befriend him, Sasuke had never paid them any mind.

There were many that held the same business interests that he did, but very few of them could possibly relate to the tragedy that he had faced as a child. Now here in his very home there was another boy who had gone through the same tragedy. He felt a deeper connection with this stranger than he had with anyone else since his family had been killed. Heck, he never let business associates enter his house, let alone a random kid he met skulking around his front lawn looking for a soccer ball.

Sasuke looked over at the blond-haired boy who was looking his house up and down. Sasuke mused about how quickly he had allowed himself to open up to him. It was unheard of for him, but it felt good. Sasuke quickly looked away from Naruto as Naruto stopped gaping at his house and glanced over at Sasuke. Sasuke managed to tear his gaze away so as not to be caught gaping at Naruto and went about preparing something to eat.

"I hate vegetables," Naruto muttered watching as Sasuke threw in some vegetables into a frying pan, adding some oil and spices to the mix. Naruto sat down at one of the twenty chairs that surrounded an enormous table that was impractical for the sole resident of the house. Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was gigantic as well.

"No wonder you're so short. Vegetables are good for you," Sasuke smirked, remembering how he had despised vegetables before his mother had figured out a special recipe that had made Sasuke learn to love veggies. It was one of the few dishes he knew that did not require a microwave or instructions off of a cardboard box, and he was glad that he could share it with someone.

"Stop insulting my height," Naruto grumbled.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

"So do you always invite random people into your house?" Naruto asked as way of trying to figure out why Sasuke had invited him. Sasuke gave Naruto a sidelong glance, finding it odd that Naruto had been thinking about the same thing he had.

"You're actually the first person to enter the house besides the police, the social worker, and my guardian since the massacre," Sasuke said off-handedly. Naruto stared at him.

"Are you serious?" Naruto asked, incredulous. Sasuke shrugged.

"I told you I like my privacy. You're also the first person to come wandering into my yard to my knowledge. From what you said, it seems most people think I was murdered and keep away from here. So who was it that you said had coerced you into coming in here? A relative?" Sasuke asked, wanting to change the subject away from his family.

"Yamanaka Kenji, and no, he's not a relative. Kid from the foster family I'm staying with at the moment."

"Yamanaka? As in Yamanaka Ino's family?" Sasuke asked, shuddering slightly.

"Yeah, I think so. I've only been living with them since the end of August, and I think she had just left for her first year of university or something before I got there. Kenji's her younger brother," Naruto explained. "Know her?"

"Unfortunately. She had a crush on me when I was younger. Rather lecherous if I recall," Sasuke said, trying to forget the way that she and that pink haired girl used to try and cling to him during elementary school. "She and another girl thought I was so cool for being a few years ahead of everyone, though still the same age as they were. Both of them were annoying. I didn't like hanging around them at all."

"So, if I'm the first to be here in ten years, do you just go over to your friends' houses to hang out?" Naruto asked, curious.

"I don't really have any close friends," Sasuke admitted, feeling kind of awkward about voicing this reality.

"Same here. I've jumped around from foster home to foster home too many times. In fact, I don't even know if the Yamanaka's even know that my birthday is next week," Naruto sighed, kind of disappointed. "No one ever recognizes my birthday, not really. I mean, it's not a big deal, and why would anyone want to spend money on a kid that probably won't be with you for very long, right?" Naruto said, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself with this theory rather than Sasuke. Sasuke didn't answer as he tended to the vegetables. He pulled two plates out of the cabinet and pushed half of the sizzling dish onto a plate for himself and the other half onto the second plate for Naruto. He set the food down in front of Naruto.

"I told you, I don't like vegetables," Naruto whined.

"I didn't used to either. Eat them. Besides, if your birthday is next week, and you said you were thirteen that means you'll be turning fourteen. Every seven years your taste buds change. It's about time you tried them again and see if the changes in your taste buds have changed to like vegetables," Sasuke explained in between bites of his own food.

"Really?" Naruto asked curiously, picking up his chopsticks and poking them into a vegetable with an apprehensive look on his face before plopping the offending vegetable in his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully. "It's not as good as ramen, but it's not bad either," Naruto said, grabbing another vegetable before popping it in his mouth. Sasuke chuckled.

"Is that a way of saying my cooking isn't so bad?" Sasuke asked.

"Sure," Naruto said, enjoying the banter. They fell into a comfortable silence as they both ate together, both finally having found someone they could relate to on a level no one else had been able to get close to.

"You said your birthday is next week?" Sasuke asked after he finished eating.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, also finishing his dinner, laying his chopsticks sideways across his plate.

"What day?"

"October 10th. When's yours?"

"July 23rd."

"Ha! So you're only four years and two and a half months older than I am!" Naruto said triumphantly.

"I'm still older," Sasuke said smirking.

"Yeah, but not that much older. Hey, how long have you lived on your own for anyway? I can't wait until I can stop being in foster care. How old before I can do that?" Naruto asked curiously. Sasuke stacked his and Naruto's plates together as he took them over to place them in the dishwasher.

"I don't know what the official age of living on one's own is, but I've been doing it since I was eleven," Sasuke said quietly. Naruto turned around in his seat to look at him.

"That young?" Naruto asked incredulous.

"I was in foster homes for three years, and I couldn't stand it. I figured out a way to make it seem like I had a guardian living here. I paid a man named Kakashi to act as my guardian for when the social worker came to check on my well-being. He used to come by and drop some necessary materials off, but he disliked coming here and only did so when he had to act like my guardian. He hated this place. He used to work with my Dad, and I think this place creeped him out. It was vacant for the entire time I was away since it was left in my parent's Will to Itachi and I. Naturally, with Itachi killing everyone and then himself, everything went to me. It took me a while to clean the place back up, but it was, and will always be, my home," Sasuke said forcefully.

"I have 7.4 million dollars from my parents' inheritance," Naruto blurted out suddenly. Sasuke looked at Naruto.

"What?"

"I said I have 7.4 million dollars from my parents," Naruto mumbled, looking down at the table. "I dunno why, but I've always wanted to be able to tell someone that I'm rich. Well, I will be. I can't get to it until I turn 17. I suppose they never thought that they would die so soon which is why I can't touch it till then. And I guess, I felt I could tell you because, I dunno, I just didn't think you would laugh for some reason," Naruto said quietly. Sasuke smiled at him gently. He walked over to where Naruto was sitting, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, relating to the need to share information – any information.

"No, I won't laugh. I know what it's like to feel the need to confide in someone and not be able to for so long. For instance, I've never been able to tell anyone about what happened the day my family was killed without clamming up until tonight with you," Sasuke said gently. Naruto looked at him and smiled.

"Do you feel like we've met somewhere before? Like in a dream? Or another life?" Naruto asked. "I feel like I've known you for ages," Naruto confessed.

"I know what you mean," Sasuke said, nodding. "Like we were friends or rivals or something close."

"Yeah," Naruto said, nodding his head in agreement. "So," Naruto said, grinning slowly. "You're it!" Naruto yelled as he ducked under Sasuke's comforting hand, and tagged him on the arm before dashing off. Sasuke blinked. Wasn't tag too old for thirteen soon to be fourteen year olds? And especially for eighteen year old businessmen?

"What, feeling your age, chicken butt?" Naruto yelled from the doorway.

"Chicken butt?" Sasuke asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, your hair looks like a chicken's ass!" Naruto laughed. Sasuke's eye twitched. No one insulted his hair. This meant war. With that thought, all thoughts of how tag was really beneath him were banished from his mind as he chased after Naruto.

_Three hours later..._

The game of tag had lasted a good forty-five minutes, Sasuke laughing so hard that his stomach actually hurt. He hadn't laughed that hard since...well, he had never laughed that hard. He and Naruto had run all about his house, Naruto giving himself a self guided tour when their game of tag turned into hide-and-seek. After Naruto couldn't find Sasuke for over twenty minutes, Naruto finally admitted defeat. (After all, it was a large house, and Sasuke lived there, so he naturally knew the best hiding spots.) Naruto had trouble remembering which rooms he had already checked in, let alone having any idea of where Sasuke might be hiding.

Sasuke had had the time of his life. He had rarely played tag as a child, and it felt as though he were trying to catch up on some of his missed childhood. After Sasuke gave Naruto a proper tour of his house, with Naruto declaring it to look like an old fart's home, Sasuke had tried to show him that he wasn't boring by showing him the things he did for fun – like painting and sculpturing, which of course, Naruto thought were boring as well.

"Don't you have any video games or cards or movies or something?" Naruto asked.

"I've got a deck of cards," Sasuke said.

"Let's play poker!" It had taken Sasuke ten minutes to remember where the heck he had put his deck of cards, with Naruto laughing at him the entire time, but he had finally found them.

So now, the two sat sprawled out in the middle of Sasuke's usually immaculately clean living room floor, munching on pretzels as they played poker, using the pretzels as poker chips as well as for food.

"Hey, I saw that!" Naruto said, pointing at Sasuke as he placed a pretzel from the bag into his "money pile." Sasuke grumbled and ate the pretzel he had tried to add to his pile of pretzels that they had designated as their "money pile" at the beginning of the game. They had each counted out 30 pretzels from the bag of bite size pretzels to use as their "money" to gamble with. Sasuke only had four left now. Naruto was apparently a good gambler.

"I fold," Sasuke grumbled, putting his cards down as Naruto collected the pretzel money pile and then reached into the bag of pretzels for some to eat, pulling out a handful then suddenly stopping mid motion. "What's that?" Naruto asked, pointing as a little robot like thing swept across the floor. Sasuke didn't bother to turn to look at it.

"It's a vacuum robot. Just set it loose, and it glides across the floor. Once it bumps into something, it turns around and goes in another direction. I have one for each floor. Saves me lots of time on cleaning," Sasuke said offhandedly. Naruto put his hand up to his mouth as he began to chuckle mischievously.

"I just had the best idea. If I-" Naruto's good idea was stopped mid thought as there was a loud knock on the door.

"Who could that be?" Sasuke muttered, standing up, until realization dawned on him. He looked over at Naruto as the same thought clearly crossed Naruto's mind.

"Crap. I forgot to tell Kenji or the Yamanakas what I was doing," Naruto muttered. Sure enough, as Sasuke opened up the door while Naruto hid off to the side. Sasuke only opened the door wide enough so that he could poke his head through to see that Mr. Yamanaka and Kenji were standing on his front step. He recognized Mr. Yamanaka as indeed being Ino's father.

"Sorry to bother you, but did you happen to see a blond-haired boy in your yard earlier?" Mr. Yamanaka asked. Kenji, for his part, stood staring open mouthed at Sasuke as though he were a ghost. 'Which he probably thinks I am,' Sasuke mused to himself, remembering what Naruto had told him about Kenji thinking that Sasuke was a ghost. Sasuke was half tempted to say that yes, he had seen Naruto, and that he had eaten him for dinner just to see what kind of reaction Kenji would have, but he had a feeling it would just end up getting Naruto into more trouble than he was already in.

"Yes. He came over for dinner," Sasuke said. "I apologize for not having him call you. He and I were talking about our...similar...experiences," Sasuke explained, feeling as though he should try and get Naruto out of some trouble. He was the older of the two, and he should have thought about Naruto being out by himself so late. It was close to 10:00pm after all. Mr. Yamanaka merely nodded, seeming to understand what Sasuke was talking about with "similar" experiences.

"Well, if he already ate dinner, then no harm done, but Naruto needs to come back home now so that he can finish his homework for school tomorrow," Mr. Yamanaka said kindly. Sasuke opened the door a little wider to allow for Naruto to come into view.

"Sorry," Naruto said, grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Not a problem. Thanks for giving him dinner," Mr. Yamanaka directed to Sasuke. Sasuke merely nodded, thinking that Mr. Yamanaka didn't seem that bad. Kenji still remained opened mouth staring at Sasuke, and now at Naruto, as though surprised that Naruto was still alive.

"Thanks. Bye," Naruto said to Sasuke as he left. Sasuke watched the three of them cross the expansion that was his lawn before remembering something.

"Oi, Naruto!" Sasuke said, leaning down to pick up the forgotten soccer ball that was by his front steps and then tossed it to Naruto. "Feel free to come by any time. You're always welcome back," Sasuke hollered.

"Thanks!" Naruto said, grinning as he clutched the ball, turning back around to head back to the Yamanaka's…

* * *

The clock in Sasuke's study chimed 5:00, bringing the two men out of their thoughts. The now twenty-one year old Naruto looked at the twenty-five year old Sasuke.

"You've grown," Sasuke murmured absent mindedly, looking Naruto up and down. Naruto merely snorted.

"You did always hype on me about my height," Naruto gritted out. Sasuke made no reply as he bent over to pick up his fallen chair.

"What are you doing here Naruto?" Sasuke asked quietly, not meeting Naruto's eyes as he sat back down in the chair. "We were close once, but you made sure to let me know loud and clear you didn't want me to contact you after you left this area. So why are you back here now?" Sasuke finally chanced glancing at Naruto, wishing he hadn't as soon as he his eyes locked with the endless sea of blue that were Naruto's eyes.

"I want answers. I want to know _why_," Naruto said, his voice filled with pain.

"Naruto, how many times do I have to tell you before you believe me? I'm sorry," Sasuke gritted out, painful regret, such pain that hurt even more than the memory of his massacred family rising in his chest.

"Damnit Sasuke! I don't want to hear another fucking apology! I want to know _why_!" Naruto demanded, grabbing Sasuke's shirt, and pulling the older man closer to him again. Their eyes locked onto each other's, their bodies painfully close, yet somehow painfully too far away from each other. Naruto's chest was heaving, and Sasuke had to close his eyes to rid himself of more thoughts that would not help his current situation.

"You've changed," Sasuke murmured. "Did I put this anger into you?" Sasuke asked, leaning in so that his ear was practically pressed against Naruto's ear, his lips ghosting over Naruto's cheek. "I never meant to hurt you like this Naruto."

Naruto's grip on Sasuke's shirt loosened, his hands shaking, but in rage or some other emotion, even Naruto wasn't sure.

"I missed talking to you," Naruto finally confessed, his voice cracking.

"Hn," Sasuke agreed, nodding.

"You've changed too," Naruto noted, removing his hand completely from Sasuke's shirt.

"Naruto, what is it exactly that you want to know from me?"

"I want to know why," Naruto's voice lowered to barely a whisper, "why on _that_ night, why the hell did you tie me up and fuck me so relentlessly, eh Sasuke?"

* * *

Please review and let me know what you think. :) - Jelp (Original post of chapter 1 was on May 30, 2007. Re-posted March 2, 2008) 


	2. Chapter 2: Healing

Please enjoy and let me know what you think. :-) - Jelp

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 2: Healing**

Sasuke looked at Naruto, seeing the pain in Naruto's eyes, hating that their relationship had come to this. They had been so close once. They had developed a bond, a deep bond filled with friendship and admiration. And Sasuke knew it was his fault. He knew that he was the one that had screwed everything up. They had been the best of friends once...

* * *

"I'm telling you Sasuke, it's a good plan to get Kenji back for all those times that he's been scaring me. If I'm really lucky, he'll finally stop," Naruto argued with Sasuke, lounging carelessly on Sasuke's couch. Taking Sasuke up on his offer to come over whenever he wanted, Naruto had been coming to Sasuke's house every day for over a month since he had first wandered in to Sasuke's yard to fetch the soccer ball.

The two had become instantly close, and although they only had a few things in common it was those few things that made them so close. Besides, they made sure to keep each other on their toes, had fun watching movies, did crazy sports in Sasuke's massive yard, kept each other company, and looked out for each other.

They also both had fun insulting each other - with playful intentions of course.

Sasuke had even bought Naruto a mini-bike for his fourteenth birthday. Naruto had stuttered out that it was way too expensive, but Sasuke didn't care, and he had bought himself one too, saying that they could race around the practically deserted street by Sasuke's house. They were always coming up with bizarre things to do. Well, mostly Naruto was coming up with bizarre things to do, and Sasuke usually went along because they ended up being extremely comical - not that Sasuke would ever admit how much he truly enjoyed them to Naruto though.

"I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm just saying that you'll need help," Sasuke said, smirking smugly. Naruto's face lit-up.

"You mean, you wanna help?" Naruto asked incredulous.

"Sure, why not?" Sasuke said, shrugging. "After all, didn't you say this has been dancing around your brain since the first night you came over? I think I vaguely remember what sparked it off. So, I'll supply the supplies, and you can do the inside work. Though if you're caught," Sasuke said, pointing his finger at Naruto, "this was all your idea."

"Yatta!" Naruto shouted out happily.

With Sasuke's aid, Naruto began to set-up his revenge against Kenji for all those times that the older boy had scared him.

After two days of planning, and another day of setting-up just the right timing to make it look as "realistic" and as scary as possible, the Saturday that Sasuke and Naruto had decided would be the best day to execute their plan finally came around. Mr. and Mrs. Yamanaka would be away for the weekend, and therefore it would be easier to catch Kenji unawares without repercussions from the Yamanaka's, as well as to prevent either of them from getting in the way.

"Are you in position?" Sasuke asked through the microphone walkie-talkie headset that he and Naruto shared.

"Yes. You?"

"Yes. I have the target in sight at about two hundred feet," Sasuke said as he peered from his hiding spot from across that Yamanaka's yard, watching through binoculars as Kenji walked home from his friend's house.

"Two-hundred feet?" Naruto asked, clearly unsure of the distance.

"By the tree with the bird's nest," Sasuke clarified.

"Got it. First one's a go," Naruto breathed, hoping that the timing would be just right.

"He's coming up the front walk. He's got his key out and is opening the door - now!"

"Second one's a go!" Naruto said as he heard the front door open, and ran to hide out of sight.

Sasuke waited with bated breath as he watched Kenji enter the front door. Less than ten seconds had passed before Kenji ran back out of his house, screaming his head off and running back to his friend's house. Sasuke chuckled to himself, shaking his head, knowing how much Naruto would get a kick out of Kenji's reaction. Sasuke quickly headed back to his house, knowing Naruto would follow shortly after with a video of Kenji's reaction.

As Sasuke had predicted, Naruto came running into his house less than two minutes after Sasuke had arrived, looking extremely triumphant, still laughing like a madman, and waving a video tape around wildly, dumping a duffel bag filled with the items from his prank carelessly on the floor.

"I can't believe he fell for something so obviously fake!" Naruto laughed, still waving the video all around. "You gotta see this!" Naruto said through fits of laughter. He popped the tape he had set up of Kenji coming into the house into Sasuke's VCR.

The Yamanaka's house was set up so that as soon as one walked in, one could either go to the right and end up into the living room, or walk forward about twenty steps and head into the kitchen since there was a wall directly to the left of the entrance. From the kitchen, off to the left, was a hallway, hidden by the wall on the left. Sasuke immediately saw that the video camera had been set up from the kitchen, probably on one of the chairs to stay semi-out-of-sight.

The video showed Kenji as he walked into the house and began to come forward. He stopped in mid motion, his face full of confusion and then horror as a severed head came gliding out of the hallway and into the kitchen. Kenji stepped back, with a look of comical mortification on his face.

Kenji's body stiffened as the camera just barely showed a severed hand glide towards Kenji from the opposite side of the living room through the kitchen and living room doorway. The hand bumped into his right foot, then slowly turn, the fingers of the hand gently brushing over his shoe as it spun and then began to move again. Kenji looked down, horrified as the hand was scraping against his foot, and then-

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYY!" Kenji screamed in utter terror as he ran out the door.

Naruto, laughing hysterically again, as he got up and turned off the video player.

"Did you see his face? And then the way he screamed?" Naruto said, clutching his side. Sasuke merely shook his head, finding greater amusement in Naruto's reaction than Kenji's. When Naruto's laughter finally died down, he reached into the bag and pulled out the clearly fake severed head and hand, along with a camcorder, followed by two of Sasuke's roaming vacuums. "These things are soooo cool!" Naruto said as he looked at the vacuums he had secured the fake body parts to in order to make them look like they were gliding across the floor. It had taken him a while to make it so that the parts covered most of the small, circular vacuum top to make it look as real as possible, and had been afraid that if Kenji looked closely, he would realize what they were. But his plan had worked even better than he had expected.

"I don't think the designer had in mind using them to make it look like severed body parts were gliding across the floor in his original plan, but the fake parts were big enough so that you couldn't really see them too well, at least, on the video," Sasuke said, half amusedly.

"Man, I'm telling you, I should invent practical jokes and tricks when I get outta school. Can you imagine how much money I'd make?" Naruto grinned, clearly pleased at the success of his plan.

"As long as you don't scare yourself," Sasuke chuckled. Naruto merely stuck his tongue out at Sasuke, knowing the older boy didn't really mean it harshly.

"Soooo, what's for dinner?" Naruto asked. Sasuke scowled.

"Dinner? We just had lunch two hours ago. It's not even three yet," Sasuke said.

"But I'm hungry," Naruto whined, his stomach growling in emphasis.

"Why do I put up with you?" Sasuke muttered to himself as he went into his kitchen, came back out and threw something at Naruto's face.

"Mmph!" Naruto grunted as the package hit him square in the face. Sasuke chuckled.

"Teme! What the hell was that for?!" Naruto demanded as his short temper got the better of him, not even bothering to look at what Sasuke had thrown at his face.

"You're welcome," Sasuke deadpanned.

"Eh?" Naruto asked confused, before he looked at the packet as a large grin began to spread over his face. "Ramen!" Naruto exclaimed happily.

"I decided I would finally buy you ramen as a way to celebrate your successful triumph over scaring Kenji. I was going to make it for dinner, but if you absolutely have to eat something now, I suppose it could be our mid-afternoon snack. You make it though, since you're the one who's hungry now. You do know how, don't you?" Sasuke said, smirking.

"Of course I do," Naruto said defiantly, running into the kitchen, but re-emerging half a second later. "And Sasuke, thanks. Thanks for the ramen and helping me out," Naruto said grinning, scratching the back of his head quickly before going back into the kitchen. Sasuke merely smiled.

* * *

Naruto awoke the same night of his successful prank to a vicious punch to his gut.

"Stop it!" Naruto yelled, panicked, as another punch landed in the middle of his chest, knocking the wind out of him. Through the dim moonlight of his bedroom window, he just managed to make out Kenji's face before the other boy began to relentlessly hit Naruto in the face and torso. Naruto struggled as punch after punch after punch landed on his stomach or face. He was blocking the blows to his face with the best of his ability, but he was tangled in his blankets. He finally managed to kick them off from around his legs while still trying to block Kenji's blows. Naruto kicked out at Kenji with his foot. It connected with Kenji's head, but Kenji caught his ankle, and began to twist. Naruto coughed out blood onto his pillow as Kenji landed yet another punch to his stomach as he struggled to release his leg from Kenji's grip.

"Thought your little joke was pretty funny, huh?" Kenji asked, pulling Naruto from his bed by his feet, Naruto's head hit the floor with a loud thud, the sharp pain making him feel dizzy.

"Stop!" Naruto tried again, as he began to fight back, lashing out with his hands, but it was no use. Kenji had him by the feet, and Naruto couldn't do anything as Kenji began to drag him roughly through the house, hitting Naruto's head and body against the sides of the doorframes, and against the walls as he passed through the house. Naruto could feel a burning sensation on his bare back as the friction from the carpet on his shirtless back began to literally burn into him with the force and speed of which Kenji was dragging him around.

Naruto finally gripped onto one of the legs of the kitchen table, making Kenji stop just long enough so that Naruto could twist his body from Kenji's grasp. Naruto scrambled to his feet, ignoring the way that his ankle burned in pain along with the rest of his aching body, as he looked wildly around for anything to throw at Kenji. As his eyes rested on the kitchen table, Naruto reached out, and grabbed the ceramic sugar dish that was on it, and threw it right at Kenji's face. He heard a thudded "ding" as it hit Kenji right in the nose before falling to the ground and shattering. Naruto however, didn't bother to see what Kenji would do to him in retaliation and ran for it.

Feeling cowardly and ashamed, Naruto burst out the front door, his bare feet connecting with the cold and rough pavement as he ran. He limped ever so slightly, and his body began to shiver violently in the cold November air.

He reached Sasuke's house in record time, grasping the cold iron bars with his chilled and shaking hands and tried lifting the latch, but it fell back down on the side of his thumb with a loud clang.

"Shimatta!" Naruto cursed, holding his numb but sore hand close to him, noticing part of the skin had torn off and was bleeding. He used his elbow to thrust the latch of the gate open, and kicked at the bars. The gate opened, and Naruto began to limp towards Sasuke's door, trying to wipe at the humiliating tears that had started and seemed to refuse to stop.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, banging at the door and ringing the bell with his good hand. "Sasu-" Naruto began to yell again, but Sasuke had already pulled back the door, having awoken at the clanging Naruto had made at his front gate.

"Wha-" but the question died on Sasuke's lips as he took in Naruto's appearance. Upon seeing Sasuke's surprised and concerned gaze, Naruto ashamedly turned his face to the side, his body shivering, as a few stray tears rolling down his cheeks and a small amount of blood from what he had coughed up earlier still on the side of his mouth. There were also a large number of black and blue marks over his face, chest, arms, and stomach.

"Do you mind if I stay here for the night?" Naruto chattered out, looking at the side of the doorframe as though hoping it would just swallow him whole, feeling humiliated at having been unable to defend himself and having to ask Sasuke for help.

"What the fuck happened to you Naruto?" Sasuke said, ignoring Naruto's question, and grabbed Naruto on the arm that looked the least bruised. Naruto gave a half shrug, still not looking at Sasuke as Sasuke half led/half dragged him into the living room and sat him down.

"Kenji apparently didn't find the practical joke very funny," Naruto mumbled.

"The bastard," Sasuke hissed out as delightful images of bashing Kenji into a bloody pulp popped into Sasuke's head. Still, he wouldn't let thoughts deter him from Naruto who seemed embarrassed to be in such a state, yet clearly needed some medical attention. "Just sit right here," Sasuke ordered, running up to his bathroom to grab the few medical supplies that he had, literally grabbing everything before running down to Naruto.

Sasuke cursed silently as he took in Naruto's appearance again, wishing that he had more supplies to help clean Naruto up. His face looked a terrible swollen mess, and his ankle was swelling quite rapidly at the same time. Sasuke kept on running back and forth to his freezer, taking out random food items and wrapping them in dishtowels and placing them on Naruto's body.

"Lay down," Sasuke murmured to Naruto, but as soon as Naruto did so, he began to gasp for air before sitting back up again.

"Can't breathe like that!" Naruto gasped, coughing. Sasuke looked at Naruto worriedly.

"I'm going to have to take you to the hospital," Sasuke said, standing up to find his car keys.

"No!" Naruto yelled, reaching out and grabbing onto Sasuke's wrist.

"Naruto, please don't reveal to me that you're afraid of hospitals or something like that. I don't care why you don't want to go, but you need to. There could be something seriously wrong with you, and I don't know how to help you," Sasuke said, hating the fact that he could do nothing to help his friend. Dejected, Naruto let go of Sasuke's wrist.

"You don't understand. If social services have to come to the hospital, and if they find out that Kenji was the one that did this, they'll remove me from that Yamanaka's care due to the abuse!"

"As they should! You should see yourself - you look a mess."

"But if they move me," Naruto said, his voice going quiet, his eyes looking down at his hands, "then they'll probably move me far away from here. I won't get to see you," Naruto mumbled. Sasuke looked at Naruto, his mouth open slightly, before snapping it closed. He hadn't thought of that. The terrible fear of feeling such loneliness again welled up in Sasuke's chest so violently he felt he would by physically sick to his stomach. For one glorious month he had had someone who had taken away that terrible hell of being so utterly alone. He didn't want Naruto to leave either.

"They're just going to find out anyway. You need medical care, Naruto," Sasuke said, pushing aside the thought of not being able to be around Naruto any more. Naruto's well being was the most important thing at the moment. "Besides, it's not like you can't call me and talk to me."

"I'm not going, and you can't make me," Naruto said defiantly.

"We just won't tell them who did it," Sasuke said, trying to compromise.

"No."

"Naruto," Sasuke hissed angrily.

"No."

"You're hurt."

"Yes, I'm aware of that fact," Naruto bit out sarcastically. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, when several light-bulbs went off in his head.

"How about this - how about I call a someone who is a medical student? She can come over and check you out. If she can't help you, then I'm going to punch you out cold and drag you to the hospital because it's _2:40 in the morning_, and I can't deal with you fighting me kicking and screaming the entire way," Sasuke suggested. Naruto just fumed.

"Fine," Naruto sighed glaring, but then winced as he decided glaring hurt his bruised eyes. Sasuke merely nodded before running around his house to look for a particular phone number.

"Damnit," Sasuke muttered to himself, "how many times did that girl give me her phone number, and now I can't find it? I can't have thrown them all out." Sasuke searched through some of his drawers, finally locating a piece of pink paper in the shape of a heart with the words "Uchiha" Sakura written on it with little hearts around the last name "Uchiha." Sasuke looked at it in disgust. 'As if I would ever want to give her my last name,' Sasuke thought to himself. 'You're going to owe me for this, Naruto.' Sasuke dialed the number from his office phone, dreading having her come over, but knowing it was his best option at the moment.

"Who the hell is this?" came a surprisingly awake but clearly annoyed female voice. "Don't you know that it's nearly 3:00 in the goddamned morning, and I was-"

"Sakura," Sasuke said, cutting her off. There was a pause.

"Sasuke-kun?" A disbelieving voice asked, her formerly harsh tone turning suddenly sweet.

"Listen, a good friend of mine was hurt pretty badly. Would you mind coming over and taking a look at him for me? He refuses to go to the hospital," Sasuke said offhandedly.

"O-of course. I'll be right over," Sakura said, before hanging up. One of the things that Sakura had made sure that Sasuke never forgot was that she too had been pushed ahead several grades, and that she was therefore very smart. She had been in medical school for several years now. He knew that she was still only studying to be a doctor, but he hoped that she would at least know enough to help Naruto.

Sasuke also had another motive for having Sakura come over. Due to the fact that it was hard not to hear their bickering, Sasuke had figured out that Yamanaka Ino and Sakura had once been best friends but were now mortal enemies due to their mutual crush on him.

Sasuke knew that even if Sakura couldn't help Naruto, she would at least rub it in Ino's face that her little brother had beaten up Sasuke-kun's friend so that Ino would hopefully in turn beat up Kenji. She could be pretty harsh when she wanted to be. Sasuke smirked. Ah, sweet revenge. No one messed with an Uchiha or his friends. Even though he didn't particularly like the idea of having one of his fangirls in his house, he knew that it was the only way to make sure that Naruto was okay - while also making sure that seeds to revenge against the person who had done this to Naruto were planted.

Sasuke walked back downstairs, feeling as though he had been running around his house for ages in order to help Naruto. Sasuke finally sat down next to Naruto on the couch, looking at him worriedly. Naruto grinned half sheepishly.

"She's on her way," Sasuke informed Naruto.

"Thanks," Naruto said. Sasuke merely nodded. Sasuke asked Naruto what happened, and Naruto grudgingly gave him all the details of their scuffle. Sasuke looked over Naruto, noting that Naruto had icy foods draped all over him, and that Naruto had bandaged his own thumb. Still, Sasuke kept looking Naruto over as though he would be able to better help him. Sasuke listened intently to all the things that had been done to him, hoping to figure out a way to help Naruto. Instead, hearing about what had transpired made Sasuke even angrier.

"I hit him in the nose with a sugar dish. Do you think he'll be okay?" Naruto asked. Sasuke merely snorted. Figures Naruto would be worried about the bastard. Sasuke supposed he was feeling ever so slightly guilty having been the one to instigate the fight by pulling the prank.

"I hope not. He deserved it," Sasuke said. "Just because you pulled that prank on him doesn't give him the right to do this to you. Besides," Sasuke said, trying to be logical, "he really deserved that prank too. He's been taunting and tormenting you since you got there." Naruto didn't say anything, and if Naruto hadn't been in such bad physical state, he would have hit the blonde upside the head in hopes of knocking some sense into him.

Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, not even wanting to know how fast Sakura had driven in order to get here in such a short time. He thought she lived at least fifty minutes away while she was at school, and shuddered slightly as he realized that he hadn't even given her directions. He seriously hoped it was because she had once been friends with Ino and was therefore just familiar with the area and thus where he lived, but he had a feeling she had probably stalked him at some point and time.

"He's over on the couch," Sasuke said in way of greeting as he opened the door and let Sakura in. She looked around the house, clearly excited to finally be let inside, despite the situation, clutching a medical bag to her side.

"Sakura this is Naruto. Naruto, Sakura," Sasuke introduced.

"Hello Naruto," Sakura said kindly, kneeling down in front of Naruto.

"Hi," Naruto mumbled, rather embarrassed. Sakura's face became serious as she began to examine Naruto's body with her critical eyes.

"What happened?" Sakura said, frowning at all the damage done to the smaller boy's body, opening her medical kit.

"Naruto's been staying with the Yamanaka's in foster care. Mr. and Mrs. Yamanaka are away, and Ino's little brother woke him up by punching him in his stomach. He then continued to beat him up, all due to getting a taste of his own medicine of being scared in the first place," Sasuke said, his voice laced with anger, though slight glee as he saw the expression on Sakura's face, knowing that she would be sure to let Ino hear about what had happened.

"I see," Sakura said, her voice steely cold, though it held a small hint of glee as well. Sasuke had been right about predicting Sakura's reaction to such new. "What exactly happened, Naruto?" Sakura asked again, all traces of any glee gone, true concern towards her patient. With Sasuke's prompting, Naruto repeated the exact events that led him to be in his current state, Sakura checking each area that Naruto said had been hit as he explained about what Kenji had done to him.

"It also hurts to breathe when I lie down. I feel like I have something pressing down on my chest when I do," Naruto explained.

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Sakura asked, pressing on different points of Naruto's chest. He hissed in pain and nodded. She did a few more simple tests, using a flashlight with his eyes, and checking his peripheral vision by making him follow her finger with just his eyes, as well as asking if when she did such and such if it hurt and if so how.

"Hmm. Well, it appears that you have a concussion, rug burn, chest wall, a sprained ankle, as well as, obviously, many bruises," Sakura said.

"What's chest wall?" Naruto asked.

"Well, luckily for you all it means is that you strained your chest muscular cavity. The proper term for this type of chest wall is costochondritis, and all you need to take is some analgesia for it. You have the mildest form of chest wall, but you seem to have the most trouble when you lay down. Your best bet will be to prop yourself up when you sleep," Sakura explained Naruto's diagnosis.

"Will I need a prescription for that anaer-whats-it called?" Naruto asked. Sakura laughed.

"Analgesia. Just take an extra Advil - it already has some in it. Also, I'll put your ankle in an ace bandage to help with that. You'll probably need crutches. I'll put some burn ointment on your back and arms where you have the rug burn, and just ice the bruises. The Advil for your chest wall should also help your concussion, but you'll need to rest to feel better. Also, you'll need someone to wake you up every two hours tonight to make sure that you're okay, and that you are able to wake up. If you are unable to do so, you'll need to go to the hospital."

"I suppose I will have to wake you up, Naruto," Sasuke grumbled, as Sakura handed Naruto two pills from her medical bag.

"I could always stay over and do it, Sasuke-kun," Sakura offered hopefully.

"I said I would. You should probably head home," Sasuke said.

"But Sasuke, she drove all this way over. Shouldn't she at least stay the night having woken her up so abruptly?" Naruto asked. Sasuke's eye twitched, while Sakura looked as though she were about ready to kiss Naruto for sticking up for her.

"You can stay in a guest room, but I'll still check up on him," Sasuke argued, defiant. He was grumpy, and his tone of voice left no room for argument. "Good thing tomorrow's Sunday, else I'd have to call out from work."

"Today's already Sunday. It's past midnight," Naruto said, as Sakura wrapped an ace bandage around Naruto's swollen ankle.

"I wasn't supposed to wake up yet so it's still yesterday, - I mean, Saturday," Sasuke muttered tiredly. Naruto decided not to argue the point as Sakura began putting burn ointment on his back.

"Come on Naruto, let's head to bed. You can share mine with me so that way I don't have to get out of bed to make sure you're awake," Sasuke said. Naruto merely nodded. Sakura, however, gave a small "oooo!" noise.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, as they all (slowly) ascended the stair.

"I mean - you two, are you two, you know...?" Sakura asked, somehow managing to look both crestfallen and excited at the same time.

"Are we...?" Naruto asked confused.

"No," Sasuke said vehemently. "Get your yaoi mind out of the gutter. He's only fourteen for crying out loud."

"What is yaoi?" Naruto asked, innocently.

"You probably don't want to know," Sasuke muttered. Naruto just looked confused, but Sakura had to hold back a laugh at the pink tinge that had crossed Sasuke's cheeks.

"But the legal age of consent here in Japan is thirteen, so I don't see what the big-" Sakura began but the death glare that Sasuke sent her made her shut-up.

"I'm confused," Naruto said.

"Sakura's just being a girl," Sasuke said before showing Sakura the first empty room on the second floor giving her strict instructions to leave them alone. She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Sasuke ignored her and led Naruto up to his bedroom.

Sasuke fluffed several pillows up so that Naruto could lie down at an angle to prevent his chest from hurting, and set his alarm for two hours, took off his shirt, and slid into bed.

"Good night, dobe," Sasuke said, reaching over and turning off the lamp.

"Thanks Sasuke. I – I haven't had anyone take care of me like this since before my parents were, you know..." Naruto trailed off.

"Un. I know you'd do that same for me. Now sleep," Sasuke said, turning over onto his side.

Sasuke's alarm went off two hours later, at 5:55am. He went to hit the alarm, but found an arm wrapped around his chest, preventing him from moving correctly. Naruto had snuggled close to him in the middle of the night. Sasuke gave a sleepy smirk, thinking that he would tease Naruto about how cuddly he was later on.

"Oi, dobe. Wake-up!" Sasuke grunted, throwing Naruto's arm off of him.

"Nnnnnnn," Naruto groaned. "I feel like crap," Naruto muttered, before trying to readjust himself on his propped up pillows, moving them around to she could lay down on his stomach, before gasping and waking up sharply. "Aaah," Naruto said, clutching his chest, as he sat back up, eyes blinking as he looked around the room in confusion, clearly forgetting that he shouldn't be sleeping lying down.

"You woke up fine, now go back to sleep," Sasuke said, resetting his alarm before rolling over and falling back to sleep.

"Thanks," Naruto muttered before repositioning his pillows, and leaning his head back against the headboard and falling asleep again too.

The second time Sasuke woke up, he noted that it was only 7:30, and was surprised to find that it was not his alarm that had woken him up, but rather Naruto. He looked over at Naruto who had his head propped back against the headboard in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. Naruto's head looked like it was titled back on a hinge, his mouth wide open while he snored loudly. Sasuke's eye twitched at the noise. He reached over and pushed Naruto's mouth closed, only to note that 1) Naruto didn't wake up and 2) Naruto was actually snoring through his nose. So, Sasuke pinched Naruto's nose.

Naruto sputtered awake, flailing around.

"You're awake again. Go back to sleep, and don't snore," Sasuke muttered, before once again rolling over onto his side.

"Teme!" Naruto yelled, rubbing at his sore head. His body ached, and the teme could have woken him up in a more dignified manner. Naruto leaned forward, took one of the pillows from behind him, and thwacked Sasuke on the head.

"What was that for?!" Sasuke asked angrily.

"You could have killed me!" Naruto exaggerated.

"I'm waking up to make sure you're alive. If I had wanted you dead, I wouldn't be doing this. Do you have any idea how much I hate waking up when I don't have to?" Sasuke grumped.

"Well if you're such an anti-morning person, than why did you volunteer to check up on me? You could have had Sakura do it," Naruto said likewise grumpily. Sasuke muttered something.

"What did you say?" Naruto asked.

"I said you're my friend, and I want to make sure you're okay," Sasuke muttered. Naruto grinned.

"You're still a teme," Naruto said.

"You're still a dobe," Sasuke said back, resetting his alarm as he realized it would go off in another twenty minutes since he had woken Naruto up earlier than the second alarm. Sasuke glanced over at Naruto, seeing that he had already fallen asleep again. Sasuke merely shook his head.

When Sasuke woke up for what felt like the hundredth time in less than ten hours, he turned over only to see that Naruto wasn't next to him.

"Naruto?" Sasuke murmured, concerned. He slipped out of bed, and walked towards his master bathroom to see if he could hear Naruto. The door was wide open, so that was ruled out. He walked out of his room and headed down stairs. He saw Naruto in the kitchen, helping himself to a bowl of cereal.

"Morning!" Naruto said brightly. Sasuke just blinked at Naruto, as though he wasn't seeing him properly. Naruto noticed the funny look. "What?" Naruto asked, perplexed as he poured the cereal into the bowl.

"Your bruises - they're all gone," Sasuke said, incredulous.

"Well, yeah. I slept it off," Naruto said as he poured milk into his bowl. However, it was clearly not enough to satisfy the endless void that was Naruto's stomach as the milk only filled the bowl partially. Naruto frowned and went back to the fridge to get out the other milk. Sasuke looked at Naruto incredulous.

"Your back where all the rug burns were yesterday, are all gone now. You're not swollen at all, and you're walking on your ankle like nothing," Sasuke said, wondering if he was still dreaming right now. Or maybe he had dreamt the part about Naruto getting beaten up at all. Looking at Naruto's hand, Sasuke realized that no, Naruto had definitely been beaten up, and Sasuke wondered if the wound under the band-aid had also healed miraculously.

Sasuke had a half mind to pinch himself to make sure he was awake, but he thought that might look just a tad odd.

"Shouldn't it be all healed?" Naruto asked, confused.

"You did get beat up, last night, right?" Sasuke asked, feeling as though he were missing some key piece of information. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for putting it so kindly, but yes," Naruto said, somewhat embarrassed.

"But - you look fine!"

"Of course I do! I slept, so I healed," Naruto explained as he topped off his bowl of cereal with more milk before plopping down into a seat and digging in.

"Good morning," Sakura yawned, as she entered the kitchen, her clothes rumpled from having slept in them, though Sasuke could tell she had tried to tidy her hair and look somewhat presentable. She too stopped and stared at Naruto.

"He was covered in bumps and bruises last night, wasn't he?" Sasuke asked her, feeling that something was definitely off he had to ask Sakura a question to confirm his sanity, but at least comforted that she seemed just as stunned as he was.

"Yes," Sakura said, looking bewildered, rubbing at her eyes. "Naruto, how did you sleep?" Sakura asked, concerned and quite confused.

Naruto looked at Sasuke and Sakura, clearly confused. It seemed that everyone was wondering what was going on. Sasuke wondered why Naruto didn't seemed at all perturbed that he was completely fine, when he had been in such terrible shape the night before. Naruto seemed oblivious to the fact that his healing ability was so abnormal.

"Well, the ointment on my back made the pillows kinda stick to it for a little while, but then after I woke up the third time this morning on my own, I felt good," Naruto said through his mouthful. "Why do the both of you look like I've grown an extra head? Aren't I supposed to be all better in the morning? Wasn't that the point?" Naruto said, feeling as though he were missing something.

"Naruto, it's not normal for people in your kind of condition to heal so quickly. Normally you'd be one best rest for a few days, if not a week," Sakura said.

Sakura was looking at Naruto as though she had found a diamond along the side of the road. Sasuke saw the glint in her eyes and realized that with the way that Naruto had been, and the fact that he had healed so quickly, he probably had some sort medical condition or blessing that would make him an extremely interesting case for a medical student to study. He would probably even be beneficial to Sakura if she could bring him in, saying that "she" had discovered him. Sasuke had considered becoming a doctor for a brief period of time, and he knew what kind of discoveries would make a medical student stand out.

"I've always been a fast healer. Guess I'm just better than I thought!" Naruto exclaimed happily. Sakura merely shook her head in disbelief before turning to Sasuke. As though just realizing that he was there, Sakura smiled widely at him.

"How're you this morning, Sasuke-kun?" She asked brightly, as though completely ignoring the fact that she had just found a medical researcher's delight.

"Fine," Sasuke clipped shortly before grabbing a bowl and pouring himself some cereal as well. Seeing as how no one said otherwise, Sakura also helped herself to some cereal too.

After breakfast, Sasuke took Sakura aside. He gave her a check for her time. She looked rather put out that he hadn't offered her something else - like a date - but she acted professional enough to not cry about it.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, as Sasuke was trying to get her out his door, "your friend is a bit strange. He shouldn't have healed so quickly with everything that had happened to him. Perhaps you should bring him to the university and run some tests and make sure everything is okay with him," Sakura suggested gently.

"I'll think about it. Thank you. Good-bye," Sasuke said, before Sakura turned cheerfully and left. Naruto was looking at him with a raised eyebrow, but didn't comment on his bizarre behavior to try and rush Sakura out of the house. He seemed to want to talk to Sasuke alone anyway.

"What am I going to do about the Yamanaka's?" Naruto asked, looking at his hands.

"I'll come with you, and we can work something out," Sasuke stated firmly.

* * *

Sasuke looked across at Naruto, wishing that the pain and hurt that he had caused him could have healed as quickly as Naruto's other injuries. If only a simple apology could heal the mental scars Sasuke had caused. He wished he could work things out as easily as he had when he had gone over to the Yamanaka's with Naruto the night that the Yamanaka's had returned home. Sasuke had been able to easily explain the situation and made it sound as beneficial as possible in Naruto's favor. The Yamanaka's had been extremely upset that Kenji had done such a thing to Naruto, and didn't even punish Naruto for the prank since they felt he had been punished enough.

In fact, Sasuke could clearly remember the look of loathing on Kenji's face when he realized that Naruto looked find, when he had a bruised nose from where the sugar dish had hit him.

"You haven't answered my question," Naruto said accusatorily, his voice cracking, pulling Sasuke from his musings. Sasuke put a blank expression on his face.

"I was drunk. My head wasn't clear. I don't know what I can do to tell you how sorry-"

"Fuck the apologizes. Fuck your drunkenness. Why Sasuke? You wouldn't have just shoved yourself inside of me for no reason. You," Naruto's eyes closed at the memory, "you had to have enjoyed it at some level. You came, didn't you?" Naruto asked, his eyes still held shut tight. Sasuke looked at his hands, feeling the guilt well up, knowing that yes, he had enjoyed it. Sasuke had wanted Naruto for some time before forcing himself upon him, and the pent up frustrations had built up to a point that had made it so hard for Sasuke not to cross the line with Naruto. Sasuke was truly sorry that he had hurt Naruto, but would Naruto understand that?

"I suppose it started two weeks after you and Kenji had that fight..."

Please review? - Jelp


	3. Chapter 3: New Experiences

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 3: New Experiences**

"I suppose it started two weeks after you and Kenji had that fight..." Sasuke began, wanting to start from the very beginning, wanting Naruto to see the whole situation. Even if Naruto didn't forgive him, he wanted him to understand. It was one of the things that he and Naruto had always been able to do: understand each other. Even if one of them didn't agree with what the other did, they had always been able to connect with each other by being able to see where the other was coming from.

"What do you mean 'it' started two weeks after Kenji and I had that fight?" Naruto asked wanting Sasuke to get on with it.

"Everything," Sasuke answered. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

"Stop giving me nonsensical and round about answers, teme," Naruto growled.

"If you want to know why, then I have to start at the very beginning," Sasuke said, being as patient as possible. "It's a bit of a long explanation," Sasuke muttered. Naruto raised his eyebrow, and for the first time since he had come bursting into Sasuke's office, Naruto allowed a small smile (even if it was a smirk) to grace his lips.

"Knowing you, this explanation could probably be summed up in about thirty seconds, but you'll drag it out for hours," Naruto said, grabbing a nearby chair, sitting down, before lounging back, clearly making himself comfortable for a long story.

Sasuke sat back down in his chair as well, feeling somewhat more at ease. That type of comment reminded Sasuke of their old bantering, making Sasuke feel as though he might be able to explain himself after all. Naruto had always teased him that he didn't talk enough for a normal person, so Naruto joked that when Sasuke finally decided to open his mouth, he tended to talk too long about things that could be said in a much shorter period of time. And even though Naruto teased him about his long-winded stories, Sasuke knew that Naruto secretly enjoyed them.

At least, when they had been friends he had. He wasn't sure how much Naruto would enjoy this story.

"It started two weeks after you and Kenji had that fight," Sasuke paused, looking at Naruto to make sure he was paying attention. He was. "Do you remember what you asked me about?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, I asked you..."

* * *

"Oi, teme, do you know how to fight?" Naruto asked, as he helped Sasuke prepare a dinner. The two of them were currently slicing vegetables to put into Sasuke's "specialty" as he called it. Apparently, Sasuke took great pride in the fact that he had gotten Naruto to eat vegetables, and he made sure Naruto ate it often. 

Since he and Sasuke had become friends, Naruto spent most of his waking hours at Sasuke's, and hardly spent any time at the Yamanaka's, especially now that he had had that fight with Kenji.

"Know how to fight? You mean, like to beat people up?" Sasuke asked confused, reaching across the table to grab some more Chinese cabbage to cut up. Sasuke's pile was nice and neat, where as Naruto's pile of cut up cabbage looked like he had hacked it up.

"Yeah, you know, to protect yourself from other people," Naruto said, picking up the chopping knife he was using and began swinging it wildly around, small pieces of the washed cabbage that had been stuck to the knife flicking off across the table - though a few managed to land on Naruto's face.

"Not really, and clearly you don't because you're swinging that knife around like a madman," Sasuke said, smirking as Naruto wiped off the vegetable pieces from his cheek.

"You're just jealous," Naruto said, sticking out his tongue, but grinning anyways, and began to jump about the kitchen foolishly as he fought pretend enemies. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, not sure whether to be amused or exasperated at Naruto's actions, and decided to be both.

"Why do you ask?" Sasuke asked, his eyes darting back and forth to what he was cutting and Naruto to make sure that Naruto wouldn't accidentally hack off his head or something while he was fighting his invisible enemies around the kitchen. He made a mental note to not let Naruto help him prepare anything again that required the use of a knife.

"I just get the feeling Kenji's still pretty pissed that he got in trouble for what happened, and I didn't. That's not to say that he'll try anything like that again, but you know, just in case I need to, I'd like to be able to fight back," Naruto said, jabbing his knife in the air in a violent manner, as though he were stabbing someone in the gut.

"Still, I don't know that it's a good idea to stab someone like that. You'd get put in jail," Sasuke said as Naruto continued his assault on his invisible prey.

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke again. Sasuke merely rolled his eyes as if to say "real mature," and chose to continue cutting the vegetables since he had clearly lost Naruto to his imaginary world. Deciding to focus on his task, he ignored what Naruto was doing as he cut up the last of the vegetables.

Except that Naruto wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing either. In his wild movements, Naruto kicked the back of Sasuke's chair, jolting Sasuke forward in his chair - along with his knife. Sasuke hissed in pain as he felt the blade cut the side of his index finger.

"Damnit Naruto!" Sasuke said, pulling his hand away from the food as his finger began to bleed.

"Sorry Sasuke!" Naruto said, putting the blade back on the table rather sheepishly.

"Dobe, get me a paper towel to stop the bleeding," Sasuke said glaring at Naruto.

"A paper towel? For that little cut? Just suck on it," Naruto said. Sasuke's face contorted in disgust.

"Suck on blood? That's disgusting. I'm not a vampire," Sasuke said, heading towards his sink where he kept the paper towels, only to find that he had run out.

"Well you're sure as hell pale enough to be a vampire. You haunt this place, and I've only ever seen you go out at night or around dusk. If it weren't for the fact that I've seen you eat garlic, I would probably peg you for a vampire," Naruto said, grinning widely.

"First you make me cut myself, and now you're insulting me?" Sasuke asked angrily, wondering when Naruto was going to stop associating Sasuke with things like ghosts and vampires.

"Come on Sasuke, I said I was sorry, and it's really not that big of a cut. Stop being such a baby about it," Naruto said, crossing his arms.

"I'm not being a baby about it," Sasuke said, glaring, though he did stop searching about his kitchen for paper towels. It wasn't like it hurt. It didn't. It was the fact that Sasuke didn't want to get blood on himself. He eyed the washcloth he had found, but with Naruto's comment about being a baby, his pride no longer allowed him to wash the blood off his finger. Sasuke settled for viciously staring at the blood in hopes that it would vanish due to fear, but no such luck. He wanted the blood to be gone, though he was not going to make an attempt to suck the blood off his finger; that was just weird.

"For crying out loud! Who's supposed to be the mature one here?" Naruto asked as he grabbed Sasuke's hand, pulling Sasuke toward him, and plopped Sasuke's bleeding finger into his own mouth.

Sasuke's entire body stilled as he felt Naruto gently sucking on his bleeding wound. Naruto's tongue gently began to clean the cut on Sasuke's finger, and Sasuke felt a strange sensation begin to spread throughout his body. The feeling of Naruto's warm, wet mouth on his finger, and his tongue gently stroking his wounded digit made Sasuke's entire body tingle. As a blush began to spread over Sasuke's cheeks, he realized that what Naruto was doing to him was making him aroused.

With another quick swipe of his tongue, Naruto released Sasuke's finger from his mouth.

"See? All better for little Sasuke-chan?" Naruto asked, his tone of voice that of one who was trying to talk baby talk.

"That was," Sasuke began, wondering what exactly that had been, but shook his head, willing the blush on his cheeks to go away, and willing the rest of his body to behave, "gross," Sasuke said, trying to sounded grossed out rather than husky. Naruto snorted at his retort. Forgetting about any comments that had initially wounded his pride, Sasuke washed his hands under cool water, his body now facing the sink, hoping that Naruto hadn't noticed his peculiar behavior as he washed his hands.

Turning his head away from Naruto, Sasuke's mind trailing back to what Sakura had implied about he and Naruto together as a gay couple. At the time, the idea was utterly absurd, but for some reason, just now, Sasuke had just imagined Naruto licking-

Sasuke bit his lip and closed his eyes. The idea was totally absurd, and he blamed Sakura for putting the idea in his head.

"You know, of the two of us, you're the one who's most likely to be a vampire. Come to think of it, I have only seen you outside at dusk. I've never seen you eat garlic, and you just sucked my blood," Sasuke said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Awww, come off it. Have you ever heard of a tan vampire?" Naruto asked.

"Vampires might have natural olive or other dark skin tones," Sasuke said, finally feeling able to turn to face Naruto.

"Alright, alright, I get it," Naruto said, putting his hands up in defeat.

"It seems you really do need to learn how to fight, or else I will end up getting hurt," Sasuke said lightly. "Why don't we take karate classes together?" Sasuke suggested.

"Yeah! That's what I was hoping we could do," Naruto said excitedly as he sat down at the table, and began to finish cutting the vegetables.

"Except, there's one problem," Sasuke said, his voice very serious.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, concerned.

"I'm going to beat you up so bad that you won't want to do it any more," Sasuke said, smirking. Naruto's eyes narrowed, but his face split into a predatory grin a moment later.

"We'll see who beats up who," Naruto said.

"Is that a challenge?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah it is," Naruto said defiantly...

* * *

Sasuke paused in his story, trying to retell as much as he could remember. He did his best to gauge Naruto's reaction, but Naruto was propping his head up on his hand, making it difficult for Sasuke to see his facial expressions. Looking into Naruto's eyes, at the moment, would have been an easy way for Sasuke to figure out what Naruto was thinking, but the problem was, Sasuke somehow seemed to get lost as he looked into Naruto's intense gaze. 

"Like I said," Naruto remarked as he leaned back in the chair, "I don't think you're even beginning to get to your point and you've already been talking for ages. Nothing's ever simple with you, is it Sasuke?" Naruto asked quietly.

Sasuke merely stared at Naruto, allowing himself to fully look over his friend, but trying to avoid any and all eye contact. Ironically enough, he had a feeling Naruto was doing the same thing to him. Naruto had grown since he had last seen him, though he still seemed a little bit shorter than he was. His skin was tanner than ever, as though he lived in the sun, his brilliant blonde hair slightly more tamed than he remembered.

"Why didn't you ever contact me before? Why did you come back now?" Sasuke asked. Naruto shrugged, and debated on whether or not he should answer. Sasuke still hadn't answered any of the questions he had wanted answered, but Naruto decided to answer anyway.

"I was hurt. I thought if I didn't talk to you, I would forget about you, and the pain would go away. But it didn't. So, I'm here for closure so I can forget about you," Naruto said, watching Sasuke's face. Sasuke's face went completely blank, his eyes flickered slightly at the comment, and Naruto knew that Sasuke's defenses were kicking in. The older man had always been good at shutting down emotionally when he was hurting.

Naruto knew that his comment to forget about Sasuke had stung. Naruto had wanted it to. Yet somehow, the pain that he had wanted to inflict, the pain that he had wanted Sasuke to feel left him feeling hollow rather than satisfied.

"You won't forget me," Sasuke murmured quietly. "You promised you would never forget me, and you don't go back on your promises..."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke looked around the gym that they had signed up to take judo and jujutsu at. Sasuke had done some research, and had found some interesting personal family history that implied that he had relatives who were jujutsu (also known as taijutsu or jujitsu) masters from the nineteenth century and had decided to study it as a sort of means to delve deeper into his own family history. 

Sasuke had paid for both of them to take two weekday evening and Saturday lessons, as well as all of the necessary equipment for himself and Naruto, and Naruto had said that he could have found a way to pay for it on his own. Sasuke had just replied that once Naruto got a hold of his money, then he would be able to pay him back later.

They both chatted idly, watching as the other people, who they assumed would be in their class, began to arrive. All of them were dressed in the same white garb that that they were in. Sasuke and Naruto had both gotten white gi, the standard lightweight uniforms for judo and jujutsu, but they were told just to use it for judo. The jujutsu specialist would require them both to wear the more traditional, heavy weight gi that Naruto complained looked like a Shinto Shrine's priest's outfit.

So as the two of them sat around the martial arts gym, they were completely and utterly unaware of what was in store for them.

"GOOD MORNING MY DEAR FRIENDS!" A man in green spandex, with a strange hair-cut bellowed at Naruto and Sasuke before swiping them into a massive hug, and then dropped them back down. "I will be your judo teacher, MAITO GAI HUZZAH!" He went off twirling around the gym, and Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other mortified.

"Sasuke, can you get your money back?" Naruto asked, in shock.

"Why did he say good morning? It's 7:00pm on a Friday night," Sasuke said, likewise in shock.

"AH! The young man here has asked why I have said good morning!" Gai said, who had been across the other side of the gym, but apparently had excellent hearing. He did something that Naruto would have labeled as a "gallop" back over towards Sasuke and Naruto. "You see young gentlemen, the Spring Time of Youth blossoms best in the beautiful hours of the morning, and begins to close at night. You are two young men, searching for the beauty of life, and so you are just budding in the dewy morning searching for your sun to heat and enfire the passions with which you will carry with you for the rest of your life!"

"Is enfire a word?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"I don't think so," Sasuke muttered back, as they both looked at Gai strangely

"So eloquently spoken, Gai-sensei!" A boy, also in green spandex suddenly seemed to materialize at their size. Naruto nearly jumped at his sudden appearance.

"Lee, my most prized student!" The two embraced, and just as Naruto and Sasuke were about to turn tail and leave, a boy behind them spoke.

"Gai's a good teacher. He may be a little psychotic, but usually Lee is the only one that seems to be affected with his insane enthusiasm," the boy, with a brown ponytail spoke in a bored sort of voice. "I was thinking about leaving my first time too, but I thought it would have been too troublesome since I was already here. I'm Shikamaru. And you two?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto said.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Sasuke introduced himself. "Thank you for your suggestion." The boy called Shikamaru merely nodded, and Sasuke and Naruto decided to stay. Shikamaru had been right: the lesson had turned out well, and Sasuke and Naruto, though clearly beginners, felt that they had both learned a good deal with just their first hour-long lesson. Instead of being tired, however, both of the boys felt exhilarated and anxious, as though they wanted to continue practice. They would get their chance with their jujutsu class, but they still had an hour to kill before that lesson.

Naruto suggested that they get a shower, and Sasuke agreed reluctantly. He had not yet gotten over what he had felt the other day when Naruto had sucked on his finger, but he decided to try and put it behind him.

Naruto and Sasuke both stripped, and Sasuke made a point to avoid looking at Naruto as they were in the joint showering area, but it was hard not to when Naruto kept knocking the soap, and kicking it right around Sasuke's feet so that he would appear right in front of Sasuke, Naruto's entire body hurtling in front of Sasuke, bending over in a surprisingly graceful movement, then grinning sheepishly and returning to his spot in the shower.

Sasuke could only hope that Naruto would find some grace, and stop being such a klutz, after they had taken some of these lessons. Quite frankly, Sasuke wasn't sure how long he could hold out with Naruto running around him, covered in slick soap like he was.

There were other people in the showers with them, but it was a wide enough area that they were not that close to Naruto and Sasuke, but it made Sasuke cautious anyway. He didn't want Naruto to notice that he was watching him, but he sure didn't want anyone else to realize that he was watching Naruto either.

If it weren't for the fact that they were in a public place, Sasuke knew that he would have been extremely hard - something that he was sure that Naruto would notice. Thankfully, the public area kept Sasuke's arousal from wanting to enflame, but it was in this awkward setting, as he peered out of the corner of his eye at Naruto, that Sasuke came to terms with one very undeniable fact.

He had a crush on his best friend.

Sasuke watched as Naruto took the soap and began to lather it over his body. Naruto took the soap and ran it slowly across his body, his eyes closed as though enjoying the feeling of having his body slicked with soap. Trails of soap foam began to trail all down his body, leaving streaks on his torso, stomach and legs, making him look as though he had white fur, like some sort of wild animal. Wrenching his gaze away from Naruto, Sasuke wished that the shower setting would go colder, but unfortunately there was only one shower temperature that came out of all the shower heads in the join shower. Sasuke finished quickly and left Naruto in the shower, ignoring the fact that Naruto would probably have wanted him to stay.

By the time Naruto was done - apparently he enjoyed long showers - Sasuke was already dressed in the standard jujutsu garb, his hair almost completely dried. Naruto gave him a sheepish grin, probably for staying in so long, dried himself off, put on his jujutsu outfit, and began to try and figure out how to tie the belt of the heavier gi. Sasuke had to help him in the end, but he did it as fast as possible so as not to upset his libido again.

Unlike Gai's class, the jujutsu class seemed to hold an air of more, well, seriousness. The other classmates looked more stoic and more at ease. Naruto fidgeted, and Sasuke wondered if it was because of the heavier weight of this gi, or if it was because he too felt the serious air the permeated the entire gym and felt a bit uncomfortable.

A tall man walked in, and the first thing that Sasuke noticed was the strange whiteness of his eyes. At first, Sasuke thought that the man was blind, but he looked across the room, and nodded towards both him and Naruto.

"Uzumaki-san and Uchiha-san I presume?"

"Yes," Naruto and Sasuke said at the same time.

"Welcome," the man said, his voice quiet, yet somehow very authoritative. "My name is Hyuuga Hiashi. You may address me as Hyuuga-sensei or as sensei. Mutual respect is key to being able to find your place, and therefore your inner peace," Hyuuga Hiashi explained.

Unlike Gai, this man commanded utter respect and total obedience from his class. Where as Gai was inviting and warm, this man was cold and aloof. They began by going over basic movements that would help to strengthen their bodies. Each movement was slow, deliberate, and yet somehow very tiring on the muscles. Naruto had trouble the first few minutes, but caught the hang of it.

"Inner peace and focus are necessary to obtaining the mindset to use jujutsu effectively. One must empty out excessive thoughts and turbulent emotions. You are not to act out of hostility, but with a clear mind and direct action. Every move should be calculated because too much movement is wasteful. Clutter around you leads to clutter in the mind..." Hyuuga-sensei's quiet but continuous strain of talk throughout their warm up put them at ease as they all moved slowly and fluidly, though it was clear that Naruto was not used to moving so slowly.

The class was then split into different sections for different skill levels. Naruto and Sasuke were split off by themselves, and a man who looked a little bit older than Sasuke, but almost exactly like Hiashi helped them begin learning the most basic of moves.

"Are you Hyuuga-sensei's son?" Naruto asked.

"No. My name is Hyuuga Neji, his nephew. My Uncle has no sons. I have two cousins, Hanabi and Hinata, and they are both here on weekends to help him with his Saturday and Sunday classes," Neji explained as he began to teach Sasuke and Naruto the basic movements. Many of them were similar if not the exact same as what they had been shown in Gai's class.

"This is a great stress burner!" Naruto said as he and Sasuke were shown the basic methods of hakko dori, or ways to avoid being locked in someone else's grasp. At the end of the night, both Naruto and Sasuke felt that they had learned a good deal.

"Thank you for your help," Sasuke said politely to Neji as he and Naruto left. Neji merely nodded and gave a small wave before they left.

For the next twelve weeks, Sasuke and Naruto attended judo and jujutsu classes three nights a week, and then would go home and practice. At times they found it difficult because they were asked to perform some of the same techniques in the two classes, but with emphasis on different areas of their bodies. Nonetheless their abilities grew quickly. They would often train in Sasuke's home. Sasuke had moved all of the furniture out of one of the guest rooms, and purchased mats and some other small equipment where he and Naruto could practice.

Sasuke had even contemplated adding on an open shower off to one side, but he was pretty sure that Naruto wouldn't use it since Sasuke had so many bathrooms in his house. He supposed seeing Naruto naked in the shower three times a week was enough, though he was becoming increasingly worried about his state of mind. There were times that Sasuke had reached out his hand to touch Naruto, only to catch what he was doing and pull it back quickly.

Still, Sasuke was the happiest he could ever remember being. His job was going well, he had a wonderful friend that he could do everything with, and he just felt like his life was going somewhere.

Naruto was the same way. He felt as though things in his life were finally looking up for him. After the first month of his training, Ino had come home for the winter holidays, and, just as Sasuke had predicted, Sakura had told Ino all about how her little brother had beaten up Sasuke-kun's precious friend, and that Sakura had stayed the night at Sasuke's in order to help Naruto heal. Ino had not been happy - and she had made sure to let Kenji know how unhappy with him she was.

If Naruto's injuries had been bad, they paled in comparison to the types of injuries Kenji had sustained from his older sister. After that, Ino had gone out of her way to do everything possible to get on Naruto's good side, and although Naruto had a feeling it was partly if not wholly due to the fact that he was Sasuke's friend, he didn't mind.

Of course, Naruto also had Sasuke to confide in.

However, what Naruto and Sasuke didn't realize was that their jujutsu training was not going as well as they both thought it was.

"What do you mean we've been doing poorly?" Naruto asked incredulously as Neji told both him and Sasuke that their performance had barely improved since they had started three months ago at the very end of one of their training sessions. "We're capable of doing loads of techniques! I actually think we had one of our best training sessions just tonight!" Naruto argued, and Sasuke silently agreed. Sasuke knew that of the two of them that he was the better of the two, but Naruto was not far behind in skill.

"Yes, your physical techniques are quite impressive, but your state of mind and thus the equilibrium in your bodies is _horrible_. Your chakra energy is all screwed up," Neji said.

"Cha-ku-ra?" Naruto said, confused, as he allowed the word to process in his brain, not sure if it was a word that he should know or not.

"What is chakra?" Sasuke asked. Neji sighed, and Sasuke had a feeling that he and Naruto were up for a long explanation.

"Chakra is the spiritual energy that resides in your body. I am sure that you have heard my Uncle saying many times about your inner peace and what not during the warm up session. What he is referring to is your eight chakra points," Neji began.

"Chakra points?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, chakra points. There are eight main chakra points in the body - though some argue that there are only seven, but we won't get into that now - and each eight points has another eight points which total sixty-four chakra points within your body. At the moment, two of your chakra points are not functioning properly," Neji explained.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Neither of them had thought that there would be any type of spiritual connotation to this class.

"Basically your first and second chakra points are not functioning properly. Each chakra point is the key to controlling components to your body's inner peace. At the moment, both of you are having major problems with controlling the components in your second chakra point, thus affecting you from controlling the stillness and grounding components in your first chakra point. Stillness and grounding are necessary for you two to become half ways decent at jujutsu."

Naruto blinked, a completely blank expression on his face. He was completely loss at what the heck Neji was talking about. Sasuke was following along a little better, but he still didn't see what Neji was trying to get at.

"So, what exactly is the problem with this second chakra point? What components are we not controlling?" Sasuke asked. Neji smiled gently.

"Do either of you have a girlfriend or significant other?" Neji asked bluntly. Naruto and Sasuke shook their heads. "I didn't think so."

"Wait, wait, wait," Naruto interrupted, sick of being lost with the conversation. "What does not having a girlfriend have to do with anything? And what aren't we controlling?" Naruto asked, repeating Sasuke's question as well.

"The two primary components in your second chakra point that are not being controlled are your sexuality and desire components. I've been observing certain things about the both of you, and I believe I am current in assuming that neither of you engage in sexual activities or masturbation?" Neji asked, a smirk forming on his face. Both Naruto and Sasuke's faces turned a violent shade of red at the topic.

"That's none of your business!" Naruto said defiantly.

"Well, if you want to control your inner peace, you must first control, or by my personal suggestion, relieve your sexual tensions and desires. I think you might find these useful," Neji said as he handed both Naruto and Sasuke several DVDs that appeared to be XXX rated by the lewd content just on the front cover. If possible, Sasuke and Naruto blushed even deeper.

"Good night," Neji said before heading out of the gym.

"Sasuke," Naruto asked, looking down at some of the videos in his hand. "What the hell was he just talking about?" Naruto asked.

"I think he basically told use we need to masturbate or get laid on a regular in order to release our sexual tensions to become better at jujutsu," Sasuke said, looking bemused at the DVDs in his hands.

"Well then why couldn't he have just said that in the first place instead of going off on some inner body spiritual tangent?!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke merely shrugged his shoulders.

Naruto and Sasuke headed back to Sasuke's place, though it might as well have been considered Naruto's as well due to the amount of time that he spent there. The entire car ride back, Naruto complained about the way that Neji hadn't come out and said point blank what they had been doing wrong, and instead had gone on some spiritual rant. When they walked in the door, Sasuke set the DVDs down on his coffee table, and then headed to the bathroom.

When Sasuke emerged from his bathroom, he was somewhat surprised to see that Naruto had already selected one of the "videos" from off of the table, and had already placed it in the DVD Player.

"This one looked like the most interesting," Naruto said, as he sat himself down on the couch. Sasuke merely stared at him.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sasuke asked.

"Watching the movie," Naruto replied.

"Do you realize what those movies have in them?" Sasuke asked, raising his eyebrow. Naruto merely rolled his eyes.

"Of course I do. It's porn. The one I put in has Kanan Umino, and Tamaguchi Miako in it. I think that Miako and Umino have the best chemistry out of the other ones, and knowing you, you probably have no idea about this kind of stuff." Sasuke merely stared at Naruto.

"You're fourteen. How do you know about this kind of stuff?" Sasuke asked. Naruto sighed exasperated.

"You're eighteen. How do you _NOT_ know about this kind of stuff? Honestly, I probably saw my first porno at eleven," Naruto said, leaning back and watching the movie. "Sit back, and just watch the movie," Naruto instructed as he got up and turned off the lights.

Sasuke, feeling very awkward that someone four years his junior seemed to know more about porn than he did, decided to keep his dignity by showing that he was fine with the situation. Right from the beginning, Sasuke had to keep his mouth shut at the strange and obviously stupid plot of the movie, stealing glances at Naruto who seemed engrossed with what was happening. He was very glad that it was so dark in the room so that Naruto couldn't see how many times he shook his head at the terrible acting.

Not even twenty minutes into the movie, the main actor and actress had already decided to go down on each other. Sasuke's body stiffened as he heard a zipper lower, and watched out of the corner of his eye as Naruto pulled out his erect penis, and began to jerk himself off as he watched the erotica before him. The glow from the TV seemed to fall directly on Naruto, illuminating the way his eyes were half-lidded, his mouth open ever so slightly, his hand moving up and down, making Sasuke's own erection painfully hard against his pants. Sasuke was slightly surprised to see Naruto pause just long enough to take his shirt off.

"Sasuke," Naruto half moaned half said, and Sasuke felt as though about to come from the way Naruto said his name, "stop being such a...nnn...prick. We're both...aaaah...guys. No big deal," Naruto said breathlessly. Sasuke needed no further prompting as he unzipped his pants and began to jerk himself off, wondering if guys masturbated in groups regularly, and then thought that only he would probably think of such a question in this situation. Sasuke fixed his eyes on the TV. He didn't want to be tempted to watch Naruto. Knowing his luck, Naruto would realize that Sasuke was enjoying watching the blond jerk off rather than what was going on with the movie.

He wasn't sure why Naruto had taken off his shirt earlier, but it was nice to watch the way his muscles contorted over his body, the way he could see the small glistening of sweat begin to form over his smooth chest and stomach. Somewhere in the back of Sasuke's mind, he knew that getting off by watching Naruto was wrong. He was eighteen. Naruto was fourteen. But what was he supposed to do when his best friend was making those erotic noises and had been the one who told him to jerk off? Sasuke couldn't stop the images that were forming in his head, and he felt guilty. But as long as he didn't act on his desires, as long as he didn't actually _try_ and lick the sweat off of Naruto's stomach, trail his finger up and down Naruto's happy trail as he wanted to, it would be okay, right? It wasn't Sasuke's fault he couldn't control wanting to hear Naruto moan his name again, was it? Sasuke justified his actions that as long as he didn't actually touch Naruto, everything would be okay.

Naruto looked out of the corner of his eye at Sasuke. He knew that he had made his friend extremely uncomfortable by putting the movie on. Sasuke clearly wasn't one that normally jerked off. Not that Naruto did it often, but at least he had. It wouldn't have surprised Naruto if his best friend had never orgasmed in his life. Sasuke just seemed like that type.

Like Sasuke, Naruto wasn't sure if guys normally ever masturbated together, but Naruto had a feeling that Sasuke wouldn't have done it unless someone else was there with him, which was a little odd, but Naruto was too busy feeling himself getting close to climaxing to really think all that much.

"Aaaah!" Sasuke said, as he climaxed first. Naruto would have smirked, realizing that Sasuke was definitely a virgin and totally inexperienced, except that for whatever reason, hearing Sasuke come like that, had sent him blissfully over the edge.

"Nnn!" Naruto moaned through closed lips as he came, his cum spurting into his hand and onto his bare stomach. Sighing, Naruto closed his eyes at the feeling. He hadn't jerked off in a while, and it had felt really, really good.

Opening his eyes again, Naruto reached across the coffee table, and picked up the roll of paper towels that he had gotten while Sasuke was in the bathroom, ripped off a few sheets, and wiped himself off. He had taken off his shirt earlier so that he would be able to clean himself up better after he had orgasmed - but clearly Sasuke hadn't thought that far ahead.

Naruto looked over at Sasuke who was looking forlornly down at his cum soaked shirt. Naruto gave a weak laugh, and tossed the paper towels over towards Sasuke.

"Virgin," Naruto teased. Sasuke's eyes flashed over to look at him angrily.

"Aren't you?" Sasuke muttered.

"Yeah, but you're older," Naruto taunted. Sasuke throw the paper towels back at Naruto, and began heading up stairs.

"I'm going to go shower," Sasuke said airily. Naruto smirked at him before turning off the porn. He was sure that there would probably be other sex scenes, but he thought he'd be good for the time being. He turned the lights back on, pulled his shirt back over his head, and proceeded to watch some TV, waiting for Sasuke to get out of the shower.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was not yet satisfied.

As soon as Sasuke got in the shower, Sasuke put some soap on his hand, then let his hand glide over his cock, as he imagined the slick feel of Naruto's mouth around him. It took even less time for Sasuke to orgasm again, his body shaking in pleasurable jerks, as Sasuke muffled his moan into his shoulder, lest Naruto hear Sasuke crying his name in pleasure...

* * *

Sasuke looked at Naruto across the desk, wondering how Naruto would take the news that he had been fantasizing about him when he was still only fourteen. 

"You had wanted me back then?" Naruto asked quietly. Sasuke merely nodded. Naruto looked off to the side, clearly lost in thought. They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Naruto finally turned back to look at Sasuke. "Well?" Naruto asked.

"Well what?" Sasuke asked back, confused.

"You going to continue with your story or what?" Naruto asked, thinking about how things were beginning to make sense, adding his own twist on things, piecing things together, as he felt some of the anger that had been building inside him finally going away.

Whatever had happened, Naruto was sure of one thing; Sasuke hadn't meant to hurt him.

* * *

AN: I'm going to be using jujutsu because that is the traditional Japanese pronunciation. I know taijutsu is used in the Naruto series, and some may know this fighting style as jujitsu or even jijitsu, but, I wanted to go with the historical origins of the Japanese fighting style that inspired the taijutsu in Naruto. :-)

Please review and let me know what you think? - Jelp


	4. Chapter 4: Life's Unfair

Sorry for the loooong delay. Anyway, enjoy! - Jelp

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 4:** **Life's Unfair**

Naruto stared across at Sasuke, feeling as though somehow, he should have come here sooner. He felt as though a weight was lifting from him, as though he was finally getting closure on something that had haunted him for several years.

Sasuke had always been the one person that had been able to understand Naruto, and he knew that Sasuke had felt the same way about him. Unfortunately, Naruto had had no idea about just how deeply or apparently strongly his best friend had felt towards him.

"Do you want something to eat?" Sasuke asked Naruto, feeling his voice strain. The word 'dobe' had almost slipped from his lips, but he somehow felt that it wouldn't have been the best time for him to try and joke around with Naruto.

"Ramen?" Naruto asked. Sasuke couldn't resist smiling at Naruto. He should have known. As he pushed a button on his desk phone to buzz Haruka, Sasuke wondered how much Naruto had changed – and how much he had to catch up on.

"Haruka?" Sasuke said, speaking down towards the phone.

"Yes?" Haruka's voice said from over the loud speaker.

"Would you please bring up some ramen, miso preferably," Sasuke said.

"R-ramen, sir? But I thought you were going to go out to dinner with-" Sasuke picked up the phone from off of the hook, making it so that her voice was cut off from the loud speaker, and instead came through the ear piece of the phone.

"Never mind that," Sasuke almost growled at Haruka. "Please bring up some miso ramen," Sasuke said, his voice demanding but not overly harsh, and he hung-up the phone before Haruka could question him any further.

"Were you supposed to meet someone for dinner?" Naruto asked.

"It's not important," Sasuke said, with a tone of voice that indicated that he didn't want to talk about it. Naruto was slightly pleased. Sasuke usually hated canceling any plans, and the fact that he did so made Naruto feel more at ease.

"As you were saying?" Naruto prompted.

"I explained to you when I started to fantasize you. Naturally I didn't act upon it-"

"For another year and a half, yes, I know that part quite well," Naruto said darkly. All of his anger that had slowly been fading came rushing back full force at the memories began to assault him. Sasuke saw the change in Naruto's face, and sighed, starting again.

"For the next year and a half..."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke continued spending as much time as possible together. They practiced both judo and jujutsu, jerked-off to the lame porn movies that Neji supplied them with, watched other movies together, and just basically spent the time enjoying each other's presence.

They were happy together, and they both knew that the reason that they were happy was because they had each other to rely on. They completed each other like yin and yang, connecting a circle.

And yet, at the same time, Sasuke wasn't one hundred percent satisfied. Over time, his crush had developed from a mere crush into something much deeper. He had come to terms that he'd fallen in love with his best friend, and he wanted more, but there were so many reasons why it just wasn't acceptable.

For starters, there was that whole male-male relationship. Just because Japan was more open to homosexuality than other countries, didn't mean that one or the other wouldn't be negatively affected by hatred due to that kind of relationship. The other factor had to do with age. Even though Naruto, in a very strange way, was more "experienced" with sexual acts, Sasuke was the older of the two. He was still years older than his friend, even though his friend was now fifteen, and he was twenty now, and Naruto wouldn't even be sixteen for another month and a half.

Cognitively, Sasuke realized that Naruto wasn't on the same maturity level as he was. Heck, he doubted Naruto would _ever_ be on the same maturity level as he was, but he was okay with that because that was just Naruto's nature. What he wasn't okay with was that he didn't think Naruto would be able to handle the depth of a relationship that Sasuke wanted. Sasuke wanted Naruto, and he wanted Naruto badly. What was more, he wanted Naruto to want him back.

Quite frankly, Sasuke's own emotions scared him at times.

There were times that Sasuke hated watching Naruto sparring with others. He got overly possessive when others touched Naruto, when Naruto was pinned, and someone else was on top of him – even if for the briefest of moments.

Unfortunately, Sasuke had let his temper get the better of him. During one sparring practice, Naruto had been pinned by an opponent named Suigetsu. Of course Naruto had been upset that he had lost the match, but Sasuke had been furious. Sasuke had watched the other male closely, and Sugietsu seemed to be enjoying his position on top of Naruto a bit _too _much. The next time he was partnered with Suigetsu, Sasuke had been a bit, er, _overzealous_ with him.

Basically Suigetsu had to spend six weeks in the hospital by the time Sasuke was done with him.

Hyuuga Hiashi asked Sasuke to take three weeks off from coming to practices at the gym, and Naruto had been mad at him for "getting too into it" as Naruto had said. Sasuke had hated leaving Naruto there by himself, so in the meantime Sasuke delved himself into reading when he could to try and escape thinking about his blonde haired friend when he wasn't around - which wasn't often, except for the few weeks that Naruto was at the gym and he wasn't - and every book that he read seemed to be against him. Little things in the books reminded him of Naruto.

Deciding to read some historical books, Sasuke encountered tale after tale about men taking younger brides or concubines to bed with them. In _Nectar in a Sieve_, the Indian woman was only thirteen and her husband eighteen when she was expected not only to have sex with him, but to also bear him a child. In _The Tale of Genji_, when Genji is eighteen he falls in love with a _ten-year-old_, and sleeps with her. He says that he is the only one who can understand her because they both lost their mothers at such a young age, and that he would love her, and it didn't matter that she was only ten and he eighteen. And indeed, in the book, he loved her until their deaths. This reminded him painfully of the strange connection that he felt towards Naruto since they had both been through the same tragedy of losing their parents.

The night after he had finished reading _The Tale of Genji_, Sasuke had had a vivid dream of him luring a ten-year-old Naruto into his bed with ramen, and then making Naruto slurp the ramen from off of his body. Sasuke had woken up in a feverish sweat, feeling rather like a pedophile as he recalled telling Naruto it didn't matter if he was ten and he was eighteen because he would give Naruto all the ramen in the world.

Sasuke had gone out and bought tons of ramen for Naruto after that – not that he expected the dream to come true, but still, he could hope.

Nonetheless, Sasuke decided that historical books were against him, luring him into this idea that he and Naruto would be acceptable (while also making him feel rather like a pedophile), and decided to read some fantasy. He read a book called _Fire and Hemlock_. It was about a young girl who stumbled into a funeral that she was not supposed to be in, and is rescued by a man, who by her initial descriptions sounds quite old. She is only about ten in the beginning of the book. However, by the time she is eighteen, she ends up having a romantic relationship with this man, this man who she had thought to be so much older when she was a child, and who is actually about fourteen years older than her.

The world was against him. He was sure of it. He couldn't even figure out if Naruto was even straight!

Sasuke waited for Naruto to get a girlfriend; waited for some sort of hint as to determine that there was just no way that Naruto leaned towards guys. But it never happened. Naruto didn't talk about the kids at his school, and never gave any indication as to what he preferred to watch. There had been a few movies that they had borrowed that had orgy sex scenes with multiple men in it, and Sasuke was sure that Naruto had seemed to enjoy that one more, but there had also been multiple girls in it, so Naruto could just have been watching the yuri, girl on girl action. Sasuke needed to watch how Naruto fondled himself with just an isolated scene of guy on guy.

On the other hand, that at least meant that Naruto couldn't be overly adverse to yaoi.

Of course, Sasuke could always just flat out ask him what he preferred, but he wasn't sure how Naruto would handle that. He could just imagine that conversation: "Hey, Naruto, do you like watching guys have sex?" "Why?" "Oh, you know, just curious because I want to fuck you…" Yeah, because that would go over well.

Sasuke often looked over at Naruto while they were watching porn together to try and figure out what he enjoyed best, but they only ever watched heterosexual films. Sasuke was tempted to ask Naruto if he wanted to watch a film that would have both heterosexual and homosexual acts in it, but Neji was the one that always got them their videos, and there was no way in hell Sasuke was going to go into a video store and ask a sales clerk about sex videos, let alone ask if it had any yaoi in it.

Slowly, Sasuke felt himself becoming desperate to know what Naruto was thinking, what he was feeling, meanwhile realizing that his love for his friend was becoming more and more obsessive.

But as Sasuke found out about most things in his life, the world was just against him. Sasuke had come up with a fool proof plan to try and figure out if Naruto liked guys, and then explore the idea of Naruto liking him, or if he wouldn't at least mind the idea of exploring doing things with him. He had finally gotten the nerve to corner Neji into giving them some yaoi videos. Neji had of course smirked the entire time, saying something about "I thought as much after that little incident when you lost it," before he happily gave Sasuke some yaoi porn. Sasuke watched them first, and decided which he would put on and see how Naruto reacted, and then, perhaps, see if they could experiment. Those plans fell through when something happened to Naruto that was completely out of their hands...

* * *

"So you had a fool proof plan to figure out my preferences around the time of finding out about my medical condition?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded.

"Naruto, I-"

"So you were considerate enough not to distract me, but you felt it necessary to go ahead and-"

"Naruto, please, that's not-"

"Well what the fuck was it, you bastard?" Naruto asked, standing up, and walking over towards the corner of the room to be as far away from Sasuke as possible. Sasuke stood up and walked over to where Naruto was standing. He put his hand on Naruto's arm gently, but Naruto flung his arm out, causing Sasuke's arm to snap back. "Don't try and comfort me, damnit," Naruto snapped.

The knock at the door made both Sasuke and Naruto jump. Sasuke looked at Naruto before going over to open the door. Haruka stood there with a tray that had two bowls of ramen on it. Sasuke took the tray from her without a word, not even bothering to thank her as he shut the door.

"You're such a cold bastard," Naruto said viciously.

"Sit down and eat," Sasuke said, ignoring Naruto's comment.

"I lost my appetite," Naruto said. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"That's not possible. You'll make yourself sick if you don't eat something, and you know it," Sasuke murmured.

"I'm already sick," Naruto grumbled, thinking back to when he had found out about his strange medical condition.

Thinking back on his week of _hell_...

* * *

"That's the third time today that I've pinned you in five minutes Naruto," Sasuke smirked as he offered a hand to help Naruto up from the training room in Sasuke's house.

"Yeah, well I pinned you seven times in six minutes yesterday," Naruto said, as he took the hand that Sasuke offered him, pulling on Sasuke's arm to try and drag him down to the mat, but Sasuke had been prepared for his maneuver and flipped Naruto back onto his side.

"Four times," Sasuke said.

"That one doesn't co-" Sasuke's doorbell ringing interrupted Naruto's statement.

"I wasn't expecting anyone," Sasuke said off-handedly.

"You never expect anyone but me, and I sure as hell haven't wrong your doorbell since a month from that time I started coming over here everyday," Naruto said.

"That's not true. You've rung me doorbell countless times to wake me up, dobe," Sasuke said darkly.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't count. If I don't give you plenty of time to wake up, you're scary. You look like a zombie or something," Naruto said, shuddering at the thought.

"Stop referring to me as some sort of make-believe creature in a haunted house," Sasuke said angrily.

"I'll stop when I figure out the right one for you," Naruto said, grinning wickedly.

"Well you-" the doorbell rang again, this time interrupting Sasuke. The ring was followed by a loud knock, and then a deep booming voice.

"Uchiha Sasuke, this is the Konoha prefecture Police, we wish to speak with you," the police officer said, his voice muffled through the closed doors, as well as due to the fact that Naruto and Sasuke were on the second floor. Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other. For a moment, Naruto thought that Sasuke was going to run for it, before shrugging his shoulders and heading downstairs.

"Did you kill somebody?" Naruto asked in awe. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I have no idea why the police are at my house," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowed as he and Naruto walked down the stairs.

Naruto watched as Sasuke walked up to the door, and opened it just enough so that Sasuke could stick his head out.

"Sorry for the disturbance Uchiha-san, but we were told by the Yamanaka's that one Uzumaki Naruto is here at your house," a second police officer said. Naruto went rigid. They wanted him?

"What importance is it to you if he is?" Sasuke asked coldly, moving his body to try and shield the officer's view as he looked in to try and see if Naruto was there.

"Sir, we are here because we feel that there is a threat to Uzumaki-san. It appears that his parent's killer, Kyuubi, has re-surfaced, and is targeting his old victims. Naruto is-"

"But that's not possible!" Naruto said, as he walked forward, shoving Sasuke out of the way as he opened the door in his anger. "Kyuubi was caught and sentenced to serve life in prison! When he found out, he hung himself at-"

"We are aware of what we believed Kyuubi had done. Unfortunately, it appears that not only is he not dead, but he is a very grave threat, and has already killed others since escaping. We need you to go to the hospital for your own safety," the first, taller police officer said. Now that he could see him properly, Naruto saw that he had several scars on his face, probably due to being a police officer. He also looked somewhat familiar, though Naruto was sure he'd never seen him before. The man next to him was heavy set, and looked semi-familiar too.

"Hospital? You mean police station, right?" Sasuke asked as he registered what the man had said. Why would Naruto need to go to a hospital for his own safety? The first police officer sighed, and he looked at his partner, prompting him to explain.

"No, the hospital. The doctors will be able to explain everything better than we will," the second officer spoke again.

"Can...can I get dressed first?" Naruto asked, in a daze. The police officer nodded.

"I'm coming too," Sasuke said, as he and Naruto ran up the stairs to change back from their sparring clothes to their normal street clothes.

Naruto watched through the police car window as Sasuke got into his own car. He nodded sheepishly to Mr. Yamanaka who was in the same police car as well, obviously having to come because he was Naruto's guardian.

"Mr. Yamanaka, I'm sorry for all of this," Naruto said, as the office closed the doors.

"No need to apologize Naruto," Mr. Yamanaka said kindly. Although Naruto had never really gotten along too well with Kenji, Mr. and Mrs. Yamanaka had always been very good to him. He didn't really spend much time at their house, but they had always been very warm and welcoming. There was a strange silence between the two of them as they drove to the hospital, Naruto looking out the window often to make sure that Sasuke was still following them in his car behind them. The ride to the hospital seemed to drag on forever, terrible thoughts whirling in Naruto's mind the entire time. When they finally arrived, Naruto practically jumped out of the police car, eager to find out what the heck was going on.

Naruto was led inside the hospital with both officers on either side of didn't like this at all because people kept on looking at him like he was some wanted criminal because of his police escort. Thankfully, glancing back at Sasuke who looked regal and serene in any setting helped Naruto calm his fears. Sasuke had protected him from Kenji, and had been there from him for nearly two years; he knew he could always count on Sasuke.

Mr. Yamanaka followed behind, nodding to Sasuke. There was a doctor already waiting for them.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" A busty blonde woman asked.

"H-Hai," Naruto affirmed.

"I am Dr. Tsunade. And are you his guardian?" Dr. Tsunade asked to Mr. Yamanaka.

"Yes," he replied.

"And you are...?" Tsunade asked Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke - best friend," Sasuke replied in a voice that clearly challenged her to contradict him.

"Uchiha, eh?" Tsunade murmured before turning her attentions back to Naruto. She nodded for all of them to follow her. Instead of being led into a hospital room, they were taken to a mini conference room further down the hall, away from the patients' wing.

"What's going on?" Naruto began asking, in a rush, "The police officer here," he pointed to the man on his right, "said that Kyuubi is alive. But I was sure that the prison reports had said that he hung himself. Now you're telling me that he is alive and after me? And why am I at a hospital instead of at a police station?"

"It appears, Uzumaki, that this Kyuubi was more than a common drug dealer as had been expected. He had hoped to become a doctor. You see, he was using his drugs to experiment on people. One of the people he was testing on was, apparently, you," Tsunade explained. Naruto's eyes went wide at this new piece of information.

"Experimenting on me...?" Naruto asked, aghast.

"Kyuubi was doing testing on a parasite called blastocystis hominis. It is normally found in raw sushi, and has some unique characteristics. We have reason to believe that during the time that he was baby-sitting you, he exposed you to a food that carried this parasite during one of your dinner or mealtime snacks. We believe you are carrying a rather unpleasant parasite. For instance, people who have this parasite have a tendency to eat large amounts of food to eat for both the parasite and themselves," Tsunade said.

"That explains a lot," Sasuke murmured in the background. Tsunade shot him a dark look for having interrupted her.

"You see, this parasite, is pretty nasty when it wakes up. For the most part, it will lie dormant, and sometimes it lays dormant permanently. However, when woken up, it extends spikes from its body, and then proceeds to spin rapidly inside of your body, ripping apart your internal organs, and putting you through excruciating pain," Tsunade explained. Naruto paled.

"Is there a cure for it?" Naruto asked shakily.

"Sadly there is no way to remove it until it begins to awaken. Normally there would be something that we could give you that would help flush it out of your system after it awakens, and then some pain medication in addition to it to help you through the pain for the seven to eight days it takes to pass completely. Sadly, like I said, Kyuubi was experimenting on you. He created a mutant form of it. In order to make his way in the medical field early on, he was testing his mutated form of this parasite by lacing it inside the drugs that he used. It appears that those who were given it through drugs showed unexpected and even deadly side effects due to the nature of combining it with drugs. Most of them have since died," Tsunade informed gravely.

"I-I'm going to die," Naruto said, numb, trying to process all of this information. Sasuke came up behind him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"That's not acceptable," Sasuke said angrily. "There must be-"

"Excuse me, I was not finished. We have found Kyuubi's notes as to who was given what, as well as detailed information of what he observed from his "patients" as he referred to them. He tested on over 100 people, but most have died. Out of everyone, it appears that you were the only person one hundred percent successful. We believe that the reason Kyuubi came back to your house the night he killed your parents, was to finish off some more experiments with you. He went to your house, killed your parents, and was going to kidnap you. Of course, as you know, the police were called by one of your neighbors and stopped him from taking off with you," Tsunade explained, pulling out a notebook that looked like it had pages hanging out of it, sticky-notes dangling on some of the edges of the paper.

"So what does it say about me in there?" Naruto asked hesitantly, wondering if he really wanted to know or not.

"It appears that Kyuubi mutated the virus so that it would have healing properties. Since you were the youngest of his test subjects, he placed a mutated version of this virus that he dubbed 'Kyuubi blastocystis hominis medicor' inside of you because it supposedly increased the healing property. It appears that he figured that a young boy would be more likely to run around and hurt himself playing, which made it easier for him to observe your healing capabilities. He named your particular virus because, well, obviously the blastocystis hominis is the name of the original parasite, the medicor is Latin for healing, and Kyuubi because all of his mutations have nine spikes, or as he calls them, 'tails.'"

"No wonder you healed so fast after Kenji beat you up. You looked a mess, and you had a sprained ankle, concussion, and that chest wall that couldn't make you breathe when you laid down, yet you healed practically over night," Sasuke mused out loud, and then looked over at Mr. Yamanaka who raised his eyebrows as he processed the depths to which Naruto had been hurt by his son.

"Did he now?" Mr. Yamanaka said, remembering the incident from over a year ago.

"Yes, did he indeed?" Tsunade asked, looking at Naruto, but it was Sasuke who answered her.

"Yes. I called a...friend...who is a medical student. She examined him, and may be able to help you out with recalling the extent of his injuries. Her name is Haruno Sakura," Sasuke said.

"I'd like to speak with her right away. Do you have her number?" Tsunade asked. Sasuke shook his head.

"My daughter probably has her phone number. I can give Ino a call and get it for you," Mr. Yamanaka supplied. Tsunade nodded.

"I'm going to do a medical evaluation on you now, Naruto," Tsunade informed him gently.

"But what about Kyuubi being on the loose? Didn't you say that I was in danger or something," Naruto asked, as he looked back at the officer's, finally looking at the name badges of the two men that had been escorting him around, "Mr. Nara and Mr. Akimichi?"

"There is a possibility that Kyuubi might come after you. We will be watching you for a time. We had thought about placing you in a witness protection program, but as you are a minor, and a ward of the prefecture, we are not permitted without first finding a proper guardian to do so. For the time being, we will be keeping a watch on your house," Mr. Nara explained.

"Thanks and all, but, umm, what did he do to the other people that makes you think that he'll be targeting me?" Naruto asked.

"He has kidnapped several of the people that he used to deal drugs to, people that according to this notebook carry a version of the parasite within them. Several of them have been found dead, but also according to these books, those were not 'successful' experiments. Like we said before, you were the one that he appears the most pleased with, hence why he named the parasite within you after himself. Also, it appears that you were one of the few that happened to have been exposed just through food. As Tsunade-sama said, it appears that he exposed you to the parasite through food, rather than through the drugs. We have a feeling this makes a great difference, and thus, much more valuable to him," Mr. Akimichi explained to Naruto.

"Is there anything that can be done in order to better protect Naruto?" Mr. Yamanaka asked, worriedly.

"He should stay with me. He practically does anyway. That way, the Yamanaka's aren't in danger, and social services can pretend to place him elsewhere," Sasuke offered before either of the officers could say anything else.

"Do you two happen to be Shikamaru and Chouji's Dads? We go to judo with them," Naruto asked suddenly. Sasuke, Tsunade, and the two officers sweat-dropped at this abrupt subject change.

"Yes we are," Mr. Akimichi said, looking bemused.

"Naruto, now's not the time," Sasuke hissed, incredulously.

"You really know how to kill the atmosphere, kid," Mr. Nara said dryly. "And as for your offer, Uchiha-san, we'll have to clear it with our supervisor, but it sounds plausible. We normally don't get other civilians involved in something like this, but it may be best to watch the both of you if it is common knowledge that you're his best friend." Tsunade merely nodded, before putting her hand on Naruto's upper arm.

"As important as keeping Naruto's future safe, I need to do a check-up on him to make sure that he is safe _now_. Yamanaka-san, please see if your daughter can find me the telephone number of the medical student. You can give it to my aid, Shizune," as Tsunade said this, a woman with short black hair appeared out of practically nowhere. "Shizune-"

"Yes, I heard Tsunade-sama. I'll contact her as soon as possible," Shizune said.

"It was over a year ago, so Sakura might not remember much," Sasuke said, off-handedly.

"Any information is better than none," Tsunade said firmly. She nodded to everyone in the room and then beckoned for Naruto to follow her. They left the meeting room, and Tsunade took Naruto to one of the hospital rooms. He was led into a small room that was obviously used for temporary care. Tsunade began asking Naruto questions as she poked and prodded. She ended up having to take five different vials of blood for different tests.

"Tsunade-sama," Shizune said, appearing out of nowhere again, just as Tsunade was finishing up.

"Yes?"

"Haruno Sakura, the girl that examined Uzumaki-san, was actually here at the hospital doing some intern work. She will be up in a few minutes," Shizune said.

"Excellent," Tsunade said.

Naruto and Tsunade waited for Sakura to arrive. Under normal circumstances, Naruto would have loved to have asked the Doctor hundreds of questions, but, as it was, he was in a state of semi-shock as he processed everything that was going on. Everything seemed like such a whirlwind.

His insides were a whirl of too many different emotions for Naruto to pinpoint all of them. Fear was the most prominent of them all. Fear of what had been done to him. Fear of what Kyuubi would try and do to him.

Fear of what Kyuubi could do to Sasuke.

When Sasuke had said that he wanted Naruto to stay with him, Naruto had been overjoyed. The joy, however, was quickly followed by fear. What if Kyuubi came after him? That would just put Sasuke in danger. Sasuke could be killed like his parents.

His parents...

Anger and hatred were the next two prominent emotions. Anger at Kyuubi for making his life so miserable, and hate towards the man who had used him, and had used others, as his personal guinea pigs. Naruto wanted to hurt the man that had screwed up his life - but above all, he wanted to prevent the man that had hurt him from hurting anyone else, especially those close to him. But how could he do that if he were with his friend? With Sasuke? He'd be putting him in danger.

Naruto was still musing over what to do to try and keep his best friend safe when someone knocked on the hospital door, before pushing it open gently and peering in. Tsunade stopped looking over the charts of information she had and gave an analyzing look at the person who entered.

Sakura stared curiously inside the door.

"You wanted to see me Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked shyly, before her eyes rested on Naruto. "Naruto-kun! Is everything okay?" She asked concernedly. Naruto had the decency to blush. He wasn't sure if he would have recognized her, but then he noticed the strand of light pink hair that stuck out from underneath the hospital cap she wore. If he hadn't seen her unique hair color, he wouldn't have recognized her. He was touched that she seemed to remember him though, even after a year.

"I'm alright," Naruto said.

"Actually, he's not..." Tsunade began explaining the situation to Sakura. Naruto zoned out as he did his best to try and block out everything that had happened to him. His emotions were flip-flopping between fear and anger, that he was sure that if he didn't calm down, he would do something rash. Like running out of the hospital and trying to find Kyuubi before Kyuubi could find him, and especially Sasuke.

'And then what?' Naruto mused to himself. 'Kill him? Call the cops? He could kill me!' Naruto said shaking his head. He needed to talk to Sasuke, and soon. He had been content with his life. He had been happy now that he had Sasuke as his best friend. Now, the same person who had screwed up his childhood was screwing him over again. All he wanted was to be normal for once. Okay, well, as normal as he could be.

Then, a strange thought came into his mind. If Kyuubi had never killed his parents, he had a feeling that he and Sasuke would never have been friends had they both not shared the same tragedy, and Naruto was forced to move in with that Yamanaka's who lived close to Sasuke. In a way, it was because of Kyuubi that he had Sasuke - still, that wasn't the point. The point was why did this have to happen now?

Naruto felt slightly nauseous for thinking that it was because of Kyuubi that he had met Sasuke. Naruto's internal thoughts ceased as Tsunade asked him some questions.

"Er, what was that?" Naruto asked sheepishly. He knew that Tsunade was only trying to help him, and he really should try to pay greater attention to what it was she had asked him.

"Sakura said that you healed rather quickly after you were hurt..." Naruto spent the rest of the evening answering questions. He learned that he was an extremely fast healer, he had an abnormally large appetite, and after another medical examination by Tsunade, she declared that he was in no immediate threat from the strange parasite living inside of him. Naruto appreciated their care, but he had assumed that Tsunade's initial examination would have been enough. They had taken five vials of blood from him for crying out loud! With Sakura there, it had seemed to take much longer due to all of the questions.

When Naruto finally exited the examination room, Sasuke was standing there, looking at Naruto with concern. Naruto glanced out of the window, noticing how dark it was getting. It had been just after 5:15 when the police had shown up at his house, and now he realized how hungry he was. His stomach gave a loud rumble, and Sasuke smirked.

"Well, at least we know now why you eat so much," Sasuke said, which made Naruto rub the back of his head sheepishly. He laughed, but only half-heartedly. Sasuke's smirk vanished, and was followed by a small frown. "Naruto-" Sasuke began, clearly unsure of how to comfort his friend.

"Naruto," Officer Nara said. "We have cleared everything with the chief. He says that you can move your things in with Uchiha-san. The Yamanaka's have decided to go on vacation for a few weeks. While they are gone, we will be watching their house, as well as the Uchiha house, naturally with more police officers watching the Uchiha house. Now, you must understand that there is no guarantee that Kyuubi will appear within the few weeks while the Yamanaka's are away. In fact, there is no guarantee that he will attempt anything any time soon - or at all. For the time being, however, we will be keeping a close eye on you," Officer Nara said.

Naruto merely nodded his head, understanding that things like this could even take years. Sasuke reached out, and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"We should get going to the police station to finish the report. You will have to come with us for the time being so we can ask you a few more questions in a more appropriate setting," Officer Akimichi said kindly. The two officers escorted both Sasuke and Naruto from the hospital. Naruto gave a small wave to Tsunade and Sakura as he left. They managed a quick wave back, as they both walked in opposite directions, clearly needing to attend other patients.

At the police station, the officers began asking Naruto several questions as to what they remembered about Kyuubi from his childhood days, as well as asking him about his recent activities, and whether or not he recalled seeing anyone following him.

Naruto answered negative to all of their questions. He had not recently felt like anyone had been watching him or following him around.

"Well, one of the only places that he could have been observing you recently, since you're out of school for the summer, is when you go to judo and jujutsu practice. As you pointed out, since our sons are taking classes there, we can come along for the Saturday practice, and observe anyone who seems suspicious. We can even go in our civilian clothes," Officer Nara said. Naruto merely nodded, his own questions forming.

"You still haven't really said what Kyuubi has done to-" Naruto didn't want to say test subjects because that made himself feel like a lab rat, "those other people. You said he kidnapped some? And you said that he had even killed some. Please, tell me what happened to them," Naruto asked. Sasuke looked sharply between Naruto and the officer. Officer Akimichi sighed.

"For the past two months we have had twenty-three disappearance cases-"

"Twenty-three? You said several at the hospital!" Naruto said incredulously.

"Yes, twenty-three disappearance cases," Officer Akimichi nodded, unabashed that he had not given Naruto the total number before. Naruto chanced a glance at Sasuke to see what he thought about this piece of information. He gripped the table tightly, his already pale hands going even whiter at his death grip on the table. Naruto almost felt sorry for the poor table. Apparently Officer Nara felt sorry for the table too as he continued. "If you're that upset about just the kidnappings, then perhaps you should leave before we explain anymore, else you'll break our table," Officer Nara said, raising his eyebrows at Sasuke.

"Sorry," Sasuke said, unapologetically, but he removed his hand from the table nonetheless. Officer Akimichi continued, looking amused between his fellow police officer and Sasuke.

"As I was saying, there have been twenty-three disappearances. Only eleven of the people that he tested on were those that he kidnapped. Others were friends, family, and significant others of his original victims. That is why we decided that it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye the both of you at once. Two of the victims Kyuubi has lured out by first kidnapping someone close to the person he actually tested on, explaining not to go to the police, etc. As for your question, it appears that seventeen of the twenty-three were killed," Akimichi said gravely.

"We were able to save six of them. Last night we were given a tip-off from a neighbor in the house across from where Kyuubi had his hideout about strange occurrences. Actually, it turns out the guy across the street is a bit of a peeping-tom, which is why he was keeping such a close watch on the house, strange large man with a lot of white hair...anyway - we knocked on the door to question Kyuubi, and the next thing we know, we have a runner on our hands," Officer Akimichi explained.

"Yeah, well, we were expecting something much less mild, weren't we Chouza?" Officer Nara said darkly.

"Yes, and a good lot that did us Shikaku. Shikaku here had the brains enough to ask me to look inside the house, even though the guy was clearly heading out, but, of course, there could have been more people inside that were accomplices. Instead, of course, we found the six remaining people. Two were actually unconscious by the time we got there, and if I hadn't gotten the emergency medical personnel there right away, they both would have died. He'd been giving them different types of poisons, subjected them to different types of electrical shock therapy, and even amputated certain body parts to see how they would react from having the mutated parasites in them. It was horrible..." Officer Akamichi trailed off.

Sasuke actually did break off the part of the table he was gripping, the noise making everyone (including Sasuke) jump.

"That bastard," Sasuke hissed. The two police officers eyed him warily. Naruto gave a grateful smile to his best friend. Having him there somehow made everything just a little less mortifying. Plus, Sasuke seemed so scary that Naruto felt as though he would be able to scare of Kyuubi just by his mere presence.

"Obviously I didn't catch up with Kyuubi. I ran after him on foot, but he ran by this lady who was just getting in her car, through her out of it, and drove off. I couldn't pursue him. The car was also found about an hour later, but there was no sign of Kyuubi. On the other hand, we got him by such a complete surprise that we managed to get a lot of details from the people he was holding. He also happened to leave, as I'm sure you noticed, his notebook behind. We believe he has a copy on a PDA, but getting the notebook shows that there were only two others that he planned on finding. You were one of them," Officer Nara explained.

Naruto could merely nod, not quite sure what to think of everything. His emotions had done such a roller coaster ride the past few hours that he wasn't sure how to react anymore. He just wanted this day to have been a dream, just wanted to go back to the way things were.

Naruto barely registered the rest of the evening, the rest of what happened in the police station passing in a blur of memories and emotions that were so jumbled together it was hard to feel anything. He was just too exhausted for anything to make sense.

Vaguely he heard Sasuke's voice telling him to follow him...

Hands were fumbling with his clothing...

Naruto idly realized that he was upstairs in Sasuke's bedroom, wearing nothing but his boxers as Sasuke helped tuck him into bed. Staring at the ceiling, as Sasuke helped put him into bed...

'I feel like I can't move,' Naruto mused as he woke up groggily the next morning. That sensation might have to do with the fact that his body was completely and utterly exhausted from the night before. Or it could have to do with the fact that Sasuke was practically sprawled out on top of him. Naruto blushed fiercely as he woke up to find himself sporting a nice hard on. Naruto pushed Sasuke off of him onto the floor, resulting in Sasuke waking up rather grumpy.

"What the hell?" Sasuke said, managing to sound wide-awake. Naruto pulled the covers away from Sasuke, feeling oddly cold as Sasuke got back into bed.

"You were lying on top of me and you were practically suffocating me!" Naruto said angrily.

"You should be grateful," Sasuke mumbled, stealing the covers back from Naruto.

"What for? You trying to kill me?" Naruto asked, equally as grumpy.

"If someone had tried to get you in the middle of the night, they would have gotten me first," Sasuke said, and although Naruto knew Sasuke was just making this up as he went, he still felt touched, as though Sasuke were implying he'd sacrifice himself for Naruto's life.

"Yeah, well, I guess you were protecting me - at least from the cold. For crying out loud, why is your house always so freaking cold? Is it because you're a living corpse that needs the cold in order to continue surviving-"

"Dobe! A living corpse is an oxymoron. It's not possible," Sasuke grumped, as he and Naruto began tugging the covers. "And you could be a little more grateful anyway. I AM letting you use my house so that way you can hide."

"Why are you always so grumpy in the morning? It's like you're a different person before 8:00am. Do you have a split personality or something? You're like a complete asshole until after-"

"The covers are mine!" Sasuke interrupted grumpily as he tugged again, this time pulling Naruto on top of him. Naruto and Sasuke both froze as Naruto found his crotch lined up a little too nicely with Sasuke's crotch. Naruto blushed as he realized that not only was he hard, but Sasuke was as well.

"Morning wood," both boys muttered as Naruto quickly got off of Sasuke, the boys turning so that they were back to back, and the covers were pulled over both of them...

* * *

The room filled with silence after Naruto had relived this part of their history together. Sasuke idly fiddled with his chopsticks, having long since finished his ramen. He remembered the fact that Naruto had woken up in the morning hard. That had been something that he had always wanted to know. Had Naruto also felt some attraction to him? He didn't look at Naruto, but there was a strange look upon his face, as though he wanted to ask this question.

Naruto noticed that Sasuke seemed to want to ask him something, and he had a feeling he knew what it had to do with, but Naruto wasn't going to explain anything to him.

Sasuke seemed to realize that questioning Naruto was a bad idea anyway, and therefore decided to remain silent.

"I never forgot that you put your life on the line for me," Naruto murmured.

"I thought you were trying to forget me though," Sasuke said bitterly. Naruto was silent for a moment.

"It just - it hurts to think about you," Naruto said.

"Perhaps if I finish explaining, things will be less painful," Sasuke suggested.

"Perhaps - or perhaps things will be even worse..."

* * *

_Yes, blastocystis homenia is a real parasite that you get from eating raw sushi from either China or Brazil. Details about the parasite are explained to the best of my ability, but it does NOT really have healing capabilities, (though you do eat a lot and it does wake up and spin spikes around in your intestines). I'm also not sure how many spikes it has. _**EDIT June 21, 2010: **I originally heard about blastocystis homenia from someone who has it. However, it appears I misspelled the term: it is blastocystis homenis. Also, please note, Starlight (The Sand Kunoichi) informed me that the information I had been told about the parasite was inaccurate. There is indeterminate information about the parasite, but it does not appear to have spikes, nor does it make someone hungrier, nor does it necessarily come from eating raw sushi - in Brazil or China or anywhere else, which is extremely disturbing as that was what the person who was diagnosed was told. I guess not all doctors know what they're talking about. I apologize for any inconvenience with the misinformation.

Please review and let me know what you thought, or review if you have questions about the story. - Jelp


	5. Chapter 5: Should Have

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 5: Should Have**

"Perhaps if I finish explaining, things will be less painful," Sasuke suggested.

"Perhaps - or perhaps things will be even worse..." Naruto murmured. Sasuke hesitated before beginning again, Naruto's last words ringing in his ears. Sasuke hadn't ever thought of that possibility before. He had always assumed that if he were just able to explain himself to Naruto, that Naruto would forgive him. He had never imagined that his situation could get any worse than it already was.

"No," Sasuke said softly. "I won't accept that." Naruto's eyes narrowed as he looked at Sasuke. Sasuke's gaze remained neutral, but he was doing so with more difficulty than normal. He wanted to glare back at Naruto, but for the umpteenth time since Naruto had walked into his door, he knew that he couldn't do that. He had to be patient.

Sasuke hated being patient, but Sasuke owed Naruto his patience.

Their staring contest was suddenly interrupted as Sasuke's desk phone rang. He let it ring, not bothering to pick it up. The phone stopped ringing, but less than five seconds later the phone began to ring again.

"Aren't you going to pick it up?" Naruto asked, his eyes never leaving Sasuke's.

"I wasn't planning on it," Sasuke said, as he waited for the phone to stop ringing. Naruto just raised his eyebrows. The phone finally stopped ringing, but then Sasuke's cell phone rang. _Bring Bring. Bring Bring_.

"Obviously someone is trying very hard to get a hold of you," Naruto said bemused as he noted that Sasuke had decided to keep the standard ring tone setting on his phone.

"Yes, and clearly I don't want to be disturbed," Sasuke said, as he hastily took his flip phone from his pocket, flipped it open and immediately flipped it back shut again, effectively hanging up on whoever it was that had tried calling him. He turned his cell phone off and then pushed several buttons on his desk phone, turning the ringer off on that as well. Naruto wondered if that was the person that Sasuke was supposed to be meeting for dinner, and he felt almost guilty for taking Sasuke away from the meeting. Almost.

Standing slowly, Sasuke turned his back on Naruto and faced his bookshelf. He ran his hand over the books, his fingers lingering longer on some books than others. Naruto saw that the books that Sasuke had mentioned, _Nectar In A Sieve, The Tale of Genji, Fire and Hemlock,_ and some of the historical Japanese books Sasuke had also talked about that had all apparently told him that age differences were okay, stood proudly on the shelves amidst taller, more business-oriented (and boring) looking books. All of the non-business books seemed to have been placed lovingly on the shelves, as though Sasuke thought that they were more important since they seemed to emphasize his own beliefs.

"You wouldn't believe how many historical figures have had male lovers. Alexander the Great had both male and female lovers. King James I of England was known for signing letters to his lover, signing his name under "Your loving wife" to his male partner. Go figure he thought himself as the wife. It's also rumored American President, James Buchanan, the only American bachelor, was gay. There are actually several political cartoons of the time that show him wearing a dress for being gay. Of course, in Chinese history, homosexuality dates back to the 600BC, and can be seen in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, and I'm sure I read a story that was set during the Sui-Tang dynasty switch where the Emperor had an affair with two of his eunuchs. Then of course, here in Japan, countless number of yaoi films and manga..." Sasuke murmured.

"Why didn't you just ask me?" Naruto asked. Sasuke spun around. "You kept on thinking about asking me, but you never did."

"What would you have said?" Sasuke asked, his eyes boring into Naruto's. Naruto had to look away.

"I don't know," Naruto murmured honestly. Then his voice was bitter, "You didn't even ask. And then, that night, the pain, and what you said-" Naruto said, swallowing his misery, fighting back tears.

"Wh-what I said?" Sasuke said, trying to fight back his emotions, but it was so hard, watching Naruto sitting there, relieving it. "I don't remember saying much," Sasuke said. Naruto's eyes flashed at him, and Sasuke knew he had said the wrong thing. "But that's not to say I-I didn't. I was, you know, slightly-"

"Drunk?" Naruto said bitterly. "Yes, I know. It was easy to smell it on you." Sasuke blushed.

"Please let me finish explaining," Sasuke said, moving away from the bookshelf, and coming closer to Naruto, crouching down so that he was lower than Naruto, looking at him as he sat in the chair. "There have been several times tonight, when I felt like-" Sasuke paused, searching for the right words, "when I felt like I was on the verge on grasping onto the right words, as though there is something I could say that would make you stop hurting. I think - I hope - you know I didn't intentionally mean to hurt you." Naruto sighed, nodding.

"I know," he murmured. Sasuke sat down on the floor in front of Naruto, purposefully making it so that Naruto was above him. It was a tactic that Sasuke had used many times in the business world. In order to make yourself seem more authoritative over someone else, to stand or sit higher than the other person would give you more apparent control. Now, Sasuke used the tactic to hopefully try and put Naruto at ease, make him realize that he would let Naruto control this situation.

"I suppose the hardest part about all of this," Sasuke said quietly, "is that even when Kyuubi seemed like a threat, you didn't seem in as much pain as you do now because of me..."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke got out of bed the next morning, both having slept restless due to their worries. Naruto had worried about all the new problems his best friend could face if Kyuubi tried to attack Sasuke to draw Naruto out, and Sasuke had worried about Naruto having once again to deal with Kyuubi. Sasuke had also wondered whether or not Naruto would say anything more about the little incident about them both sporting hard-ons, but Naruto seemed oblivious to what had happened. In fact, he seemed oblivious to everything else that morning. It was as though the shock of finding out that his parents' killer was still alive and had now set his sights on Naruto had finally sunk in. The weight of this reality put Naruto in a strange stupor. He went through the morning routine of getting breakfast in such a daze that Sasuke had to stop Naruto from pouring the orange juice instead of milk into his cereal, and had to stop him from putting the cereal back in the fridge and the milk back in the cereal cupboard.

"You seemed to be a bit mixed up today," Sasuke said, trying to joke as he put the milk back into the fridge.

"It's just that I feel like a sitting duck here. I never really felt as though I wanted to be out of your house before, but all of a sudden, having been told that it's best for me to stay put, makes me want to leave here. I feel like I need to leave, to get out of here," Naruto said as he put his dish into the dishwasher. (Sasuke had been watching him, wondering if he was going to put it into the oven, but Naruto seemed to at least be semi-coherent of some things this morning.)

Sasuke looked at Naruto, thinking hard.

"Well," Sasuke began, looking at his hands, "do you remember the very first night you stumbled in here, and how you and I went around and played tag?" Sasuke asked. He was pleased to see a smile finally come across Naruto's face at the memory.

"Yeah," Naruto said, smiling slightly. "Were you thinking about playing tag in here?"

"Well, no, but it's a possibility if you wanted to. But, what I was going to say, was that after we had finished playing tag, I took you for a tour of the house, and you told me it looked like an old fart's home? And then I told you that I liked to paint and sculpt?" Sasuke said.

"Yeah, I remember," Naruto said, wondering where Sasuke was going with this train of thought.

"You never really seemed interested in painting or sculpting, but that was 2 years ago. I mean, you're almost sixteen now, and you see..." Sasuke said, trailing off, blushing slightly.

"I've never seen you so flustered before," Naruto said, forgetting about his own problems as he looked at Sasuke.

"When I told you that I painted and sculpted, you didn't seem particularly interested, so I didn't bring it up again, but I know what you mean about feeling locked up in the house. That's why, whenever I felt like I needed to go away somewhere, I went to my art studio," Sasuke explained.

"Art studio?" Naruto asked, confusion evident in his expression. "I don't recall ever seeing an art studio here before," Naruto said thoughtfully. Sasuke smirked obviously proud of himself.

"That's because I've never shown it to you. It's hidden," Sasuke said. Naruto's eyes went wide.

"You mean there are secret rooms and stuff in here?" Naruto asked excitedly, all thoughts of his problems now banished from his mind. "Teme! Why didn't you ever tell me before?" Naruto asked. Sasuke merely shrugged.

"You never asked," Sasuke said mysteriously as he beckoned Naruto to follow him as he walked out of the kitchen and up the steps, Naruto quickly following him. Naruto followed silently, wondering where the entrance was. Sasuke led Naruto up to the third floor towards one of the hallway closets. Opening the door wide enough so that Naruto could see what he was doing, Sasuke tugged on the chain of the light. Naruto peered inside noting that there were only a few things there. He saw several boxes pushed in the back of the closet, flushed against the wall.

Sasuke leaned down and began to drag a particularly heavy looking box away from the back wall. He chanced a glance back at Naruto, who seemed totally enrapt with what Sasuke was doing. Sasuke pulled another box away from the wall, and then placed his hand on the right side of the back wall and pushed.

Naruto let out a sound of excitement as he saw the back "wall" was really a door that hinged in the middle. It was hard to push because it scraped the carpet of the closet, and the boxes also made it practically impossible to open due to how it was set up unless you moved them away from the "wall" first. Sasuke seemed to notice that Naruto was looking at the boxes, and Sasuke explained that it was a good way from getting people to open the door - from both outside and inside.

"Itachi went down here once, and I didn't realize it. He used to use this room a lot before I knew that it even existed, and I saw the door ajar one afternoon, with all the boxes messed up. I pushed them back against the wall. He was so mad that night because it had taken my Dad two hours to find him after we heard thumping on the wall," Sasuke said as he showed Naruto what lay on the other side of the doorway. A spiraling staircase led downward. They went down the steps, and Naruto realized that they were going even further down than the first floor. When the stairs finally leveled out, Sasuke led Naruto forward through a small archway that opened into a brightly lit room.

Sasuke couldn't help but smile as he heard Naruto gasp behind him.

"This is- this is-" Naruto said.

"Amazing?" Sasuke said, watching amusedly as Naruto nodded his head.

* * *

"Will you get to the point?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"Excuse me?" Sasuke retorted, slightly miffed that he was being interrupted.

"What exactly does you taking me down into your secret studio have anything to do with the answers that you're supposedly supposed to be giving me?" Naruto asked frustrated. "What does it have to do with you liking me - being in love with me, being obsessed over me, to you changing your mind and deciding that I was nothing more than a replace-" Naruto stopped mid-rant, the word dying on his lips. He clenched his fists in anger.

Sasuke looked at Naruto, as the blonde before him tried to collect his thoughts. For one wild moment, Sasuke had the insane idea that Naruto was going to say "replacement," as though Naruto was under the impression that when they had had sex, Sasuke had used Naruto as a sort of replacement for someone else, and that the real reason that Naruto was angry was because he thought that Sasuke had had sex with him while thinking of someone else. Was this what Naruto was asking him? Did Naruto think that Sasuke had used him as a replacement?

The notion was gone in a mere second, the surge of hope that had welled inside him crushed. No, of course that wasn't what Naruto was talking about. No matter how many times Sasuke tried to justify his actions, no matter how much he wanted Naruto to say that he had wanted it, Sasuke couldn't deny the fact that he had raped Naruto. Sasuke closed his eyes, trying to rid himself of the memories that had sprung in his mind unwanted, remembering the way that Naruto had screamed repeatedly for him to stop...begging him not to...

"I'll make the explanation short then. The reason that I mentioned that room was to say how well I knew you. Probably even how well I still know you. You were so distraught and upset about Kyuubi, and I could distract you at one point and time. I knew how to make you happy. The reason I mentioned it was because," Sasuke paused, "I guess I want you to remember all the happy times we had together. Maybe I'm trying to convince you that we can still be friends," Sasuke said sadly. Naruto narrowed his eyes, looking at Sasuke.

"Friends? I don't know what you think of me, but friends don't do to each other what you did to me," Naruto said angrily. Then Naruto changed the topic back to the room. "I don't think you realized how confused I was after you showed me that room, but I had begun to guess that _something_ was up when you asked to do a nude portrait of me. Maybe that should have been a warning sign," Naruto mumbled.

* * *

"It's like a different world down here! You have a mini garden inside your art studio and everything," Naruto noticed happily.

"Yeah, It's good to have for paintings. Gives me a different setting than outside, and it gives me more leisure time to get just the right light that I want. I can go outside for more impromptu settings, but here, I can control the conditions."

"How do you keep everything alive? I never noticed you coming down here before, and I practically live here," Naruto asked curiously.

"Most of the plants here are easy to maintain. I have an irrigated water system set up that goes off to water twice a day, and the florescent lights are set to the same cycle of brightness as the sun, but I can change that if I want to get a certain lighting for a painting. You see, I don't normally come here to paint as often as I used to, and I hardly ever sculpt any more. It was just sort of something to do to fill time when I was done with work. Not to brag or anything," Naruto's snort of disbelief made Sasuke pause as he gave Naruto a self-flattering smirk, "but I'm pretty intelligent, so I am able to get most of my work down while actually at work, unlike most of my co-workers who have to drag everything home," Sasuke frowned in thought, remembering how different and dull his life had been without Naruto in it. Sasuke smiled softly as he turned to look at Naruto who had noticed his friend's lapse into the past.

"You were really lonely before I got here, weren't you?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded.

"Like I said, I rarely ever have to take my work home with me. Before you were around, I'd get restless just sitting and reading so I needed other things to do. I mean, now, I have so much more going on. I hardly ever have time to do my lawn like I used to-"

"Hey, I help!" Naruto interrupted indignantly. There had been quite a few occasions where Sasuke had gotten Naruto to help him with his yard work to maintain the flowers.

"Yeah, well, don't you remember what my lawn used to look like before you threw that ball over my hedge? It was immaculate. Now, well, I have other activities. Jujutsu, judo-"

"watching porn-"

"-baby-sitting you-"

"Hey!"

"-so I don't paint as much. Still, sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up and I can't sleep, and I need something more calming to do," Sasuke murmured, and Naruto's retort back at Sasuke for saying he had to baby-sit him died on his lips. This was one of those things that neither Sasuke nor Naruto ever talked about but they both knew the other suffered from. It was only natural that the other boy would be haunted from nightmares of his past. A place like this, a calming place, would be the perfect setting to help get rid of those dreams.

"That's why you brought me down here," Naruto said in understanding. "This place helped you forget about Itachi, and now you want to help me forget about Kyuubi." Sasuke nodded.

There was a moment where the two shared such a deep understanding of the other, each looking at the other as though they couldn't possibly imagine how they ever survived without the other. Sasuke's breath hitched as he looked at Naruto, looked into those blue eyes, and wondered if the love he saw there, the care and depth that poured from Naruto could possibly be more that gratuity. It was then that Sasuke realized just how physically close to each other they were. When had Naruto moved so close to him? Why was his heart beating so fast? Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned forward-

"Oi! Sasuke-teme! You look like you're about to fall asleep standing up. You feeling alright?" Naruto wondered as Sasuke quickly moved his head back away from Naruto.

"Fine," Sasuke said, trying not to growl. Of course Naruto wasn't thinking those same things about him. He still hadn't found a way to test the theory of whether or not Naruto was into guys. Sasuke sighed, and decided to continue talking about his garden and art studio in order to try and get his mind off of the fact that he was trying to hit on his friend while he was in a distressing situation. "The most difficult part about taking care of this place, is getting the bees and other insects to pollinate down here so that the flowers will bloom when..." Sasuke trailed off as he noticed he had lost Naruto's attention. Naruto had spread out in the grass and laid down during Sasuke's loss of concentration.

"The grass feels so soft," Naruto sighed happily.

Sasuke looked down at Naruto, his friend spread out so carelessly. Sasuke grinned, glad that he had at least succeeded in easing his friend's worries. That had been the whole purpose. Seeing _Naruto_ happy, after all, made _him_ happy. Naruto hummed something to himself, his eyes half closed in blissful peace. Slowly he opened his eyes, looking at the ceiling. He squinted at the ceiling as though the colors on it were lights that were blaring down at him. Then again, the bright colors from the ceiling did seem to contrast greatly with the color and style of the architecture of the old mansion's hidden room. Naruto's eyes widened as he recognized the bright colors were actually a painting, and that he was looking at Sasuke's and his own face staring back down at him. He glanced over at Sasuke who had looked up at the ceiling to see what Naruto had been looking at.

"I had forgotten about that," Sasuke said nonchalantly. Naruto gaped at him, wondering how he had forgotten about doing something like _that_. Naruto had never seen Sasuke's artwork, but he was amazed at how talented his friend was. The scene looked so realistic. Naruto felt entrapped in the scene as he looked at it, wondering how Sasuke had managed to do that to the high ceiling.

Sasuke had a feeling that Naruto was wondering about the painting on the ceiling, so he decided to explain the ceiling's history. "I've painted that ceiling about ten or so different times in my life. I take pictures of them before I repaint them of course, but I haven't been able to paint anything I really felt should be there. This one is one of the closest to date, but it still seems off," Sasuke explained as Naruto looked at the scene. He and Sasuke were both in the middle of some fantastic fight seen. The two of them were pressed back to back, their hands out in a defensive position as enemies surrounded them.

"It looks so real..." Naruto said in awe. Sasuke just smirked, pleased with himself at the praise.

"I thought it fitting to have us as ninjas because of all the jujutsu and judo we do. For a while I was actually contemplating doing a scene where we were samurai, but it just didn't feel right."

"It really is amazing," Naruto praised Sasuke again, wondering how he had managed to miss seeing the ceiling when he had first come into the room.

"What I've always wanted to do," Sasuke began slowly, a slight blush rising to his cheeks, his eyes purposefully adverted from Naruto, "was to do a scene akin to Michelangelo's painting off the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Originally, he had naked cherubs and people across the ceiling, but they later had to be censored. It was a church after all. Don't know why he thought he could get away with having naked people in it, but never mind that. The point is, I've always wanted to do something like that. Obviously not an exact recreation because that wouldn't be my own work but something close. Still, I would need to practice drawing nude people first..."

"I'm sure you could get one of those fangirls from high-school you've told me about pose nude for you. I'm sure that they would," Naruto snickered. Sasuke shuddered.

"Which is exactly part of the problem. I don't like the idea of asking random people to undress so I can draw them."

"Why don't you just get a picture of someone or download a picture from the internet?" Naruto asked. Sasuke sighed.

"I have, but I can't get the lighting or mood that I want because I'm not controlling the environment for the setting I have planned out in my mind. Still, that's not even the main problem." Sasuke was blushing rather profusely now, and Naruto was amused at his friend. "In college, it was required to take some sort of art class. So, I took a class where they have nude models come in. The thing is, I have tons of sketches of women naked-" Sasuke walked over towards a wall on the far side. Naruto looked closer realized that there was a door on the other side that seemed to blend into the wall. Sasuke opened it and pulled out a sketchbook along with some paintings that were unframed. Naruto saw that Sasuke did indeed have many sketches and a few paintings of naked women, all of them well done and very realistic looking.

Sasuke looked over at Naruto, and saw that Naruto was shifting himself slightly, and Sasuke wondered if he was getting a hard on from seeing the naked women. He sighed. It wasn't like he didn't know that his friend liked women. He had seen him masturbate to how many countless porn movies?

"These are what I did before, and I have a sketchbook of drawings from the class, so I think I can recreate the women easily since I have so many different notes on different lightings. It's men I've been having a hard time drawing," Sasuke said, blushing, as he pulled out another painting that was unframed and rolled up, but he did not unroll it to show Naruto what was on the other side. He also pulled out another sketchbook, and he showed Naruto his attempts at male drawings. Sasuke gauged Naruto's reaction, and Sasuke was slightly glad to see that Naruto did not seem repulsed to see sketches of naked men.

"Hey, that's Kanan Umino!" Naruto said, and Sasuke was glad that Naruto had been able to recognize the actor who he had been trying to draw. "He was in the very first porn movie we watched together," Naruto said off-handedly. Sasuke wasn't sure whether or not he should feel flattered that Naruto actually remembered the very first porn movie that they had watched together. It actually had been the only reason that he had picked this particular male to try and sketch, but finding the kind of pictures that would be best to use to make sketches of had been hard. The internet hadn't given him the types of poses that he had wanted.

"It does look, _off_," Naruto said, frowning, as he studied the sketches that Sasuke had done.

"Well, it's kind of hard to draw him when there's about three females hanging off of him in every picture I find of him on the internet," Sasuke grumbled.

"Hmm, I can see why you've been having problems," Naruto said, putting his finger to his mouth.

"S-so," Sasuke stuttered, and Naruto looked at Sasuke again, and Sasuke had a feeling that Naruto was enjoying how uncomfortable Sasuke was talking about this, though Naruto probably thought that Sasuke was just shy instead of because of what he was about to reveal. "I've been sketching and painting myself nude," Sasuke said as he walked just a little further away from the door to what looked like a normal wall, but when he pressed a certain rock in the stone, the wall panel slid out of the way to show an enormous mirror.

"This room is so cool!" Naruto exclaimed upon seeing the mirror.

"Hn. I've been using this mirror to sketch myself," Sasuke added noncommittally as he clutched at the rolled up painting still in his hand.

"Wait a second," Naruto said, realization dawning on his face, as he pointed to the mirror and then to the picture, "is that your drawing of yourself?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah," Sasuke said, as he unrolled the large painting to show Naruto his artwork, Sasuke hungrily gauging Naruto's reaction, desperately hoping for some sort of sign that Naruto might be _interested_.

"Wow..." Naruto said, looking at the painting. It was a life size painting of Sasuke lying down with the backdrop of the garden behind him. "It looks just like you!" Naruto exclaimed, once again looking at Sasuke with amazement. It wasn't exactly the reaction that Sasuke had been hoping for, but at least Naruto was impressed by his artwork.

"Would you mind if I drew you?" Sasuke asked, trying to fight the blush that was once again returning to his face.

"Wh-what? Like – without clothes?" Naruto asked, blushing himself.

"Just in your birthday suit," Sasuke said, confidence returning to him once again.

"My birthday suit? I don't have a birthday suit," Naruto said confused. Sasuke sighed, putting his face into the hand that wasn't holding the painting.

"It's just an expression. It means being naked because you were naked on your day of your birth, hence your birthday suit."

"That's doesn't make sense. Suits are clothes," Naruto said, still looking confused.

"You don't make sense Naruto. How can you not understand about what a birthday suit is?" Sasuke asked incredulously. The two of them bickered back and forth, any awkward tension that had been hanging in the air vanishing completely, with the end result that Naruto lay stretched naked on the grass, and Sasuke sat a little ways away, trying hard not to jump with joy at the bonus of being able to work on his goal to how he wanted the ceiling, and of course be able to have an excuse to stare at Naruto naked.

"It was a good choice, you know," Naruto said, and Sasuke looked up from his sketch of Naruto, his mind off in La La Land, remembering the scene in _Titanic _where Jack sketches Rose, and the later scene where the two of them end up having sex, wondering if he could convince Naruto that that would be a good idea for them to do the same thing once Sasuke was done with the sketch.

"What was a good choice?" Sasuke asked, his pencil halting in mid air, coming back to reality.

"Choosing me as a model. I am quite good to look at," Naruto said smugly. Sasuke smirked.

* * *

"If I recall correctly, you didn't mind posing nude for me," Sasuke said, smirking.

"Yeah, well, I had been hoping you'd be interested in me, not someone else," Naruto said looking away.

Sasuke felt his jaw drop, and then had to literally push it back open.

"Wh-what did you say?" Sasuke said, standing up quickly, grabbing the front of Naruto's shirt, and pulling him closer to him his eyes darting back and forth looking at Naruto's eyes, wondering if he had heard right. Sasuke's heart was beating fast, and his mouth had gone dry.

"I said, I had been hoping you'd be interested in me, not someone else," Naruto repeated slowly, as he gripped Sasuke's hand and used a jujutsu move to make Sasuke release him by pressing on one of Sasuke's pressure points, much like Sasuke had done himself when Naruto had first barged into the room and forcibly lifted him out of his desk chair.

"But, I thought, I mean..." Sasuke said, trailing off.

"I told you, you should have just asked me, instead of...what you did..." Naruto said, trailing off as he looked past Sasuke's shoulder, his eyes not really focusing on anything. Sasuke's entire body was shaking so badly that he had to hold onto the desk as he slid down it, his legs no longer willing to support him at this shocking revelation.

"No, no..." Sasuke said, shaking his head, realizing how much he had fucked up. "I thought – no – my God, I thought, but, _no_!" Sasuke yelled. He couldn't believe this. After all these years, he had had the opportunity to try and woe Naruto, he could have been happy, and he had messed up so badly.

"I realized I was bi ages ago. And I began slowly falling for you. It wasn't until that time that I was in the room, the time that I saw your portrait that I realized what I felt. I knew that your self-portrait must have been recent, so I knew that you hadn't been getting much sleep for a while. I never knew how much you still suffered, yet there you were, when I was suffering, doing everything you could to take away the pain. That was when I knew that I really cared for you. I mean, at first it was just, you know, a sort of attraction and crush, but it made me wonder if I could maybe fall in love with you. You were my best friend and I felt it only natural. You have always been good looking, but I didn't really think of ever acting on it because I'd never desired anything physical, and I probably would have gone on thinking that if not for the following night..."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke had spent all of the previous day, and all of following day in the secret art studio where Sasuke had been sketching Naruto. However, it was getting later, and the two of them had decided to spar. Naruto felt even more frustrated than normal since he hadn't exerted much of his energy all day. All he had done the entire day was lie out so Sasuke could draw him.

Sasuke had suggested that Naruto pop in a porn movie, since that was what supposedly helped him relieve frustration. Sasuke, on the other hand, had already taken a nice cold shower before their spar, claiming that he had needed to wash the paint off of himself, where in reality, he had jerked off to the image of Naruto's naked body. Of course, Naruto didn't know that.

Instead of watching the movie, Sasuke decided he would just work on a sudoku puzzle. He wasn't even paying attention as the horrible porn movie was going on, and Naruto felt a little odd jerking off just by himself as they sat there on Sasuke's bed, sitting in front of the large screen TV.

Sighing, Naruto saw that Sasuke was completely uninterested in the movie, and therefore not jerking off as well. Naruto felt extremely frustrated, not being able to get off watching the movie. It was then that he realized that he probably hadn't gotten off on watching these stupid things any more, and that it must have been watching Sasuke jerk off that made him come. Now, Naruto felt slightly foolish at this realization, especially since he thought that Sasuke seemed utterly disinterested in both the movie and him. Naruto almost stifled a growl as he realized he probably wouldn't be able to come tonight. Closing his eyes, Naruto tried to picture Sasuke jerking-off to help him come.

Just as he decided it was a lost cause, Naruto gasped as he felt Sasuke wrap his hand around his shaft, pushing Naruto's hand away. Naruto's eyes snapped open, making sure he was really feeling what he thought he was feeling. Yes, Sasuke was looking at him, as Sasuke's hand was working lovely magic on Naruto's now extremely hard cock. Sasuke slid himself next to Naruto, Naruto's eyes wide as he focused his eyes back on the porn movie before him, Sasuke jerking him off. He wanted this feeling, this moment to last, and he knew if he watched what Sasuke was doing to him, he'd come almost immediately. Still, the feeling of Sasuke's hand on his heated flesh, and the fact that this was real and new made it hard for Naruto not to come fast despite how difficult it had been to even get hard before. Naruto was frozen as Sasuke's hand pumped faster, and Naruto came, his body spasming as he leaned against Sasuke, his entire body on fire.

"You looked like you were having trouble getting-off," Sasuke said in way of explanation before unwrapping his hand from Naruto's now soft cock, easily sliding back to his original position on the other side of the bed, looking completely unconcerned with what he had just done, focusing his attentions back on the sudoku puzzle he was had been doing.

"Thanks," Naruto muttered, but in reality, he felt anything but grateful towards Sasuke. Sasuke had stirred in him new emotions that he didn't want to think about. Had Sasuke just done that to "help" Naruto, or had he enjoyed it too? It was only the day before that the thought that he might be falling for his older friend had occurred to him, and all of a sudden, for Sasuke to do that - why? Did Sasuke want him? Did Sasuke love him? Naruto laid back on Sasuke's bed, picking up the towel that they always had stashed for such occasions and wiped himself off before zipping his pants back up.

* * *

"You used to get off on watching me?" Sasuke asked incredulous. Naruto nodded.

"I told you, I thought you were attractive, and, well, I wasn't even sure at that point! But, it kind of made sense that you not jerking off was the reason why I couldn't get off then. You were a live person versus the porn movies, but like I told you, I didn't know what to think." Naruto's face darkened. "And then you took your own insecurities and frustrations out on me just a few days later. You weren't even sure what you were doing, you selfish prick. You didn't even bother to ask me. And on that day! _That day_!"

"Naruto I-"

"Just – just finish it, okay? Just finish explaining this, please," Naruto said, a resigned note in his voice. Sasuke nodded, but he hesitated, looking away.

"Will you first tell me about what happened? You never got around to telling me about what happened with Kyuubi, and what he," Sasuke swallowed, "what he said and did to you on _that day_." It was Naruto's turn to look away.

"I did promise you I would eventually, didn't I? Well, here goes..."

* * *

If anything was confusing, leave me a review and I'll try and explain it to you. FYI, if you want me to answer questions, don't forget I need an e-mail address. Let me know what you thought. - Jelp 


	6. Chapter 6: Kyuubi's Experiments

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter Six: Kyuubi's Experiments**

"Just finish explaining this, please," Naruto said, a resigned note in his voice. Sasuke nodded, but he hesitated, looking away.

"Will you first tell me about what happened? You never got around to telling me about what happened with Kyuubi, and what he," Sasuke swallowed, "what he said and did to you on that day." It was Naruto's turn to look away. Naruto hesitated for a moment, but he had promised, and he wasn't sure if he would want to stick around after Sasuke finished his part of the story. He decided to tell Sasuke everything.

"I did promise you I would eventually, didn't I? Well, here goes..."

* * *

Naruto woke up in the middle of the night, lying on Sasuke's bed, suddenly wide-awake, as something felt strangely and terribly wrong. He idly wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he was still uncertain about what had happened between him and Sasuke before they had headed to bed, and wondered if Sasuke had been really just helping him get off before, or if Sasuke had something else in mind. Naruto rolled over onto his side with the intent of waking Sasuke up and discussing this with him, when he realized Sasuke wasn't there. Naruto's feeling of panic mounted. 

The strange surge of panic that had flared up within Naruto died just as suddenly when he realized that Sasuke was probably down in his art gallery. Yet why, _why_ did something feel horribly wrong?

Flinging the covers off of himself, he slipped out of bed, walking barefoot across the room. Sasuke's room was on the fifth floor, and the entrance to the hidden room was on the third. Naruto began his trek down to flights of steps as he grumbled to himself about stupid people who can't stay asleep all night as he reached the landing on the third floor, only to hear muffled sounds downstairs in the kitchen.

Naruto sighed, and turned to head down the other flights of stairs, wondering if Sasuke would put an elevator in the place, not even bothering to look down the hallway of the third floor, or he would have seen the dim light above the door to the entrance of the hidden room was on, and the door indeed open...

Grumbling to himself now about stupid people and their need to eat in the middle of the night, Naruto huffed down the stairs, muttering to himself in order to help shake off the strange feeling of unease.

"Oi, teme! You should have woken me up too. You know I like to eat," Naruto hollered as he pounded down the last flight of stairs, muttering about the need for elevators to save time, even though he usually enjoyed exerting his energy running up and down the stairs.

The house was eerily silent except for the noises coming from the kitchen. As soon as he reached the base of the steps the noises stopped. Naruto's foot hung in mid-air, as though his body had refused to take the next step for him, an unexplainable fear gripping him. The living room was completely dark, and Naruto knew that Sasuke liked to save energy and all, but he would have at least turned on the light to the living room, right? Maybe the light from the stair well had been enough for him to see in the kitchen, even across the vast expanse of the living room? His hand shaking, Naruto flickered on the light switch by the stairs, the lights flashing on. Naruto looked around him suddenly, as though afraid somebody was going to attack him once the darkness they had been hiding in had disappeared.

"I'm being paranoid with all this Kyuubi nonsense," Naruto muttered to himself when he saw nothing, finally placing his foot down on the carpet of the living room floor. Still, his steps were slow and deliberate as he crossed the large living room, cursing for the first time at how big Sasuke's house was. He wished the kitchen light were on so he could look into it better because he couldn't make out where Sasuke was.

As he drew closer, Naruto frowned. He should have been able to see Sasuke by now, as close as he was, even if just the living room light was on. Suddenly, Naruto's sense of fear and panic began to grow as he realized that the reason that he was unable to see Sasuke in the kitchen was _not_ because it was too dark; he couldn't see Sasuke because Sasuke wasn't _there_.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called out feebly, wondering if Sasuke was tricking him. "This isn't funny!" Naruto called out a little more boldly as he stepped his foot into the kitchen. A noise to his right made him turn, and Naruto literally jumped. He realized it was coming from the other side of the kitchen island placed between the fridge and the table. He couldn't see what was making the noise, and for some horrible reason, Naruto didn't want to take another step forward, fearing what he would see on the floor of the kitchen.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called out again tentatively, but Sasuke didn't answer him.

Naruto looked around him, glancing back towards the door that seemed miles away across the wide living room, and even the stairs on the other part of the room seemed so far away.

Now, Naruto let fear and panic take over. His body was tense, and he was paralyzed in his terror. Then, his fear took on a more personal form, as he realized that maybe it was Sasuke, lying out of his sight behind the kitchen's island counter, unable to move, and here Naruto was, unwilling to help him.

Swallowing, Naruto forced his body to move, forced himself to take a few more steps forward to see what was behind the counter, to see what was making those noises.

"Ah!" Naruto screamed as he saw something blood red on the floor, and Naruto scampered half a foot before he got up the nerve to see what it was. Naruto stood rooted to the spot as he took another look at the floor, his eyes adjusting to the slightly darker kitchen, and then nearly cried from relief. A red fox looked up at him expectantly. The thing had somehow managed to get a piece of meat from the freezer, tearing away at it every now and then, making a bloody mess with the raw meat. It seemed to be making the banging noises as it picked up the meat in its enthusiastic jaws, biting into it, but not always ripping off a piece cleanly right away. Once it had, the entire hunk of meat would fall back to the ground, the bone in it clanking horribly against the tiled kitchen floor.

"You scared the shit out of me," Naruto sighed, wondering how the hell the fox had gotten inside of Sasuke's house. "How'd you get in here?" Naruto asked, his heartbeat slowing down as he turned to look and see if the door was ajar.

"I let him in here." Naruto froze. As he had turned to look at the door, he found that a very familiar person blocked his line of vision. A very unwelcome person. "Hello Naruto-kun. It's been a while." That was the last thing Naruto remembered before he felt a sharp searing pain in his head, and then he saw nothing but darkness...

* * *

"You _were_ in your art studio though, weren't you?" Naruto asked, pausing in his narrative. 

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep. I had thought about waking you up, but you looked so peaceful. I wish I had asked you to come with me," Sasuke said bitterly.

"But you heard something, didn't you?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, but not until you were out of the house..."

* * *

Sasuke had woken up from a disturbing dream, but for the first time, the nightmare had not been about his past, but rather his future. He couldn't quite remember the dream, but he knew it had had something to do with Naruto. Feeling rattled, Sasuke turned in bed to face Naruto, about to wake him up, and then thought better of it. He felt foolish. He shouldn't be waking up Naruto when Naruto had been having such a terrible week, and he finally seemed to be sleeping. Instead, Sasuke got out of bed and headed down to his art studio, hoping that his uneasy mood would pass. 

As Sasuke finished a sketch that he had started of Naruto earlier that day, his stomach clenching and unclenching, a tight pain coiling in the pit of his stomach. For a second, Sasuke felt that he was going to be physically ill. He doubled over, but nothing came up. The pain had come and gone in a matter of seconds, and Sasuke was rather confused as to what had caused his strange and random burst of nausea.

Then, he heard something that made his blood chill. One - two - three gunshots rang muffled from somewhere above him. Panicking, Sasuke dropped his sketch and bounded up the steps, out of the hidden entrance to the art studio, and then bounded up the two flights of steps towards his bedroom.

"Naruto!" Sasuke hollered, panicked. He ran into the room. A glance across the bed and seeing that Naruto was not there made Sasuke turn and practically fly down the stairs. "Naruto!" Sasuke yelled again, dashing across the living room, glancing over the room to the kitchen, freezing as he saw something that looked horribly like blood smeared across his kitchen floor. Sasuke stepped tentatively toward it, then noticed that the trail of blood led from his kitchen floor, little splatters here and there across the rug. The trail seemed to lead out his front door. Hesitating for only a second longer, Sasuke burst out his house.

As he dashed out onto his front lawn, he slipped on the wet grass in his bare feet, wondering where the hell the policemen that were supposed to be guarding him and Naruto were. He turned, looking around wildly, then heard the sound of a car speeding away, followed by blaring sirens and another set of screeching tires as the police car sped off.

Sasuke thought he might have a heart attack. He felt utterly alone as he realized, in dawning horror that Naruto had been abducted.

Taken by Kyuubi, no doubt.

The thought sickened Sasuke, and he really did throw up this time. Sasuke spat afterwards, ridding his mouth of the little residue of bile still left in it. He swiped his hand across the back of his mouth in disgust.

Then, to his horror, he saw something that looked terribly like a body lying in his front lawn. He stepped toward it, praying to kami-sama that it wasn't Naruto. Getting closer, Sasuke noticed it was one of the police officers. His body lay crumbled, his hand still clutching his gun in his hand, his eyes unseeing.

Sasuke threw up again.

* * *

Naruto woke up groggily, the side of his head throbbing horribly. He tried to reach a hand up to massage his aching head, but his hand wouldn't move. It was then that he realized he was tied to a chair, sitting in a room that looked vaguely like a hospital room. 

Naruto tugged at the ropes that bound him, and found that he could move neither his arms nor his legs which had both been tied to the legs of the chair.

"Ah, you're awake." Naruto turned his head to look at the man that was sitting slightly behind him, staring directly into the eyes of Kyuubi.

"Mother fucker!" Naruto spat at him.

"You're wound is healing nicely," Kyuubi said conversationally, as though Naruto had not just spat at him, his tone suggesting the casualness as one who was commenting on a new shirt. Kyuubi moved his chair to sit in front of Naruto.

"Let me go, murderer!" Naruto demanded. Kyuubi gripped a clipboard in his hand and began to write.

"Firery spirit. Seems coherent after an hour of being unconscious. Drugs appear to wear off more quickly with this patient than the others. I was going to let you sleep before we started, but I'm just so excited to get started," Kyuubi said aloud as he wrote all of this down on his clipboard.

Another wave of panic swept over Naruto, remembering what Officer Akimichi had said about him.

"He'd been giving them different types of poisons, subjected them to different types of electrical shock therapy, and even amputated certain body parts to see how they would react from having the mutated parasites in them. It was horrible..."

"What am I, you're guinea pig?" Naruto demanded. Kyuubi looked up at Naruto, a frown upon his face.

"Of course not Naruto-kun. I baby-sat you. I fed you. I think that you and I, after sometime with these experiments, will be good friends," Kyuubi said as he smiled at him. Naruto gave him a horrible sneer.

"You killed my parents. You killed off all the other people you experimented on and dealt drugs to," Naruto hissed.

"The follies of my youth," Kyuubi agreed. "Your parents were a sad tragedy. I shouldn't have gotten high. That was my error. I have changed my ways. I know that that was wrong. I need to right the world. I will not kill you Naruto, nor was it my intent to kill off those that I experimented on before. But you see, all of them, except you, were drug-addicts, like I was once myself. It was less of a threat to the rest of the world if I experimented on them, don't you see? Some of them, like me, had changed their ways and no longer did drugs. I made sure to take extra care of them. They didn't die."

"What about their family members? Their friends?" Naruto yelled.

"Oh, poor Naruto-kun. Don't you understand? They were necessary sacrifices. I didn't want to kill them either, but they were getting in the way. It is sad though isn't it?" Kyuubi asked conversationally.

"You're a sick, twisted, selfish fuck," Naruto spat again, disgusted.

"Such an unkind thing to say Naruto-kun. I am not unselfish. See this fox here?" Kyuubi asked, pointing at the fox that had been in Sasuke's kitchen earlier. It was curled up over in a corner, apparently asleep. "This little fox snuck into one of my hideouts and ate all of my food. Even though I was angry, I didn't throw the starving thing out. No, I gave it a string of the parasite I placed in you. Wasn't that kind of me? It will protect it from being hurt, and it heals remarkably fast, faster than humans even. Watch!" Kyuubi said delightedly, as he took a gun from his pocket.

"No!" Naruto yelled. His shout woke up the fox that looked around, and seemed to cower in fear at Kyuubi before a gunshot rang out.

Naruto turned his head away, not wanting to see the little fox's mangled body. Even with his eyes closed, Naruto could still hear the whimpers of the fox, and he could picture in his mind's eye the poor creature's body shaking in pain.

"Oh, Naruto-kun. He's fine," Kyuubi said, sounding almost exasperated with Naruto's antics. Naruto, despite his better judgment, opened his eyes to look at the fox. There, shaking in the corner was the fox, his body trembling from fear, and even though there was a small patch of blood on his fur, there was no wound what so ever on the fox's body. Naruto stared, wide-eyed at the fox.

"H-how?" Naruto asked, amazed despite himself.

"Ah. I knew you'd be interested," Kyuubi said in a sickeningly delighted voice. "Little Akatsuki here has the same strain of mutation in him as you do, but he's also got a special something else. I've developed it since my experimentations have started. I haven't been able to completely recreate what I once had before I was first sent to jail, but I've this," Kyuubi picked up a needle from a bag that was lying on the floor that held liquid tinged with just a hint of pink (though still rather clear liquid) swirling in it.

Naruto merely stared at Kyuubi, wondering what he was talking about. Kyuubi was clearly insane, and the man's thoughts were not overly coherent.

"What do you need me for if you already have the fox?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. Kyuubi smiled wickedly at him.

"Dear Naruto-kun, foxes and humans are not alike in how their bodies react. Even dogs and cats have reacted differently from how this fox does. I think I've lost nine of my dogs, but only three of the cats. I don't have them any more. They were too cumbersome to take care of," Kyuubi mused. "I kept this fox here because, like you, it still holds value. If I let him loose into a home, he has an uncanny ability to find raw meat. He distracts people into the kitchen, allowing me to take them back home with me unawares," Kyuubi said pleasantly.

"Kidnapping people," Naruto said bitterly.

"Taking them back with me," Kyuubi amended. Naruto didn't even bother to try and correct him again. It was clear that Kyuubi was not aware of any wrong doing on his part. He had justified everything in his twisted brain. Naruto shuddered, realizing he had met someone with no conscious or ability to take their own blame: the worst kind of villain. "So, Naruto-kun, we will start you off today with a nice dosage of morphine so that way you don't feel much of this, though you do need to be semi-coherent so I can question you about certain side-effects. See? Aren't I generous? You'll be in hardly any pain at all." Kyuubi pulled out another needle from the bag, pushed out any air bubbles and jammed it into Naruto's arm, followed by a different needle filled with an unknown drug.

"I really do hate to put drugs into your system, you have stayed clean after all, but, I know I'll get different results from you than from someone who was already addicted," Kyuubi explained happily. A few minutes past, and Naruto began to feel absolutely and utterly horrible. His head was swimming, and he was having a hard time telling whether or not he was feeling happy or not. Kyuubi's face kept swimming in and out of focus, strange colors dancing across his vision. Naruto vaguely wondered if this was some sort of acid trip, but his mind couldn't focus on anything at once. Naruto felt the strange sense of happiness, though he could see his body physically shaking. His body had also begun to feel strangely numb.

All Naruto could think about was Sasuke, trying to grasp onto his friend, thinking, wildly hoping, that his friend would come save him from the grip of the madman, meanwhile trying not to wonder why Sasuke hadn't been there, wondering if Sasuke was lying injured, or worse, dead in his house somewhere.

What felt like hours later, but was really only forty minutes, Naruto found his mind coming back down to reality. His eyes were finally focusing, and he could tell that his body was adjusting back to normal.

"How're you feeling?" Kyuubi asked.

"Like I hate you," Naruto groaned.

"In an unpleasant mood still, I see?" Kyuubi said. "Well, I suppose that means the drug has worn off. You don't seem to have gone through any terrible hallucinations. That's a good sign. The morphine should still be working. Is your body feeling numb still, or do you need another dosage before I continue?" Kyuubi asked as he held up what appeared to be a sword. Naruto paled as he realized Kyuubi was about to impale him with it. Naruto's mind thought fast. His body was no longer numb, but it appeared that Kyuubi believed it should still be, so if he didn't accept the drug, his body would still be manageable, and Kyuubi wouldn't be any the wiser. Naruto would be able to move, but getting stabbed like that would still hurt like hell.

"Still numb," Naruto mumbled, eyeing the sword with fear.

"Excellent. Well, here we go," Kyuubi said as he stabbed the sword straight through Naruto's right chest. Naruto cried out in agony.

The pain was almost unbearable, but Naruto knew he didn't have time to think about that as he felt Kyuubi sliding the sword back out of him, frowning at Naruto's cry of pain. Naruto lunged himself forward as soon as the blade of the sword had left him. Using the balance from his judo and jujutsu, Naruto turned in his chair so that the blade cut at the ropes, his arm snapping free, though it wasn't a clean cut. He had paid a price to get the ropes off of him, as he felt blood now seeping from another wound in his right arm.

"Wha-?" Kyuubi asked surprised, but didn't have time to think as Naruto shot out his hand, his adrenaline pumping as he grabbed the sword, swiping at Kyuubi desperately, his uses with a wooden kendo sword during a brief introduction with it during jujutsu vaguely coming back to him.

Kyuubi staggered back, clutching at his chest that Naruto had slashed at. He wasn't wounded deeply, but it was enough so that he was distracted long enough to allow Naruto to cut at the ropes binding his other limbs. Still bleeding, clutching the sword, Naruto took another slash at Kyuubi. A part of him, a dark part of him wanted to cut off Kyuubi's head, or make him suffer for what he had done to him, to those other people and to his parents, and even what he had possibly done to Sasuke. Another part of him knew that he shouldn't. Naruto took the sword, and used the hilt to hit Kyuubi over his head, knocking him unconscious.

Naruto, still clutching the sword, still bleeding, ran through the only door he could see, ran up a flight of steps, ran through a deserted looking house, until he burst through the front door.

"Help! Help! Call the police!" Naruto hollered. He repeated his call before he saw the lights in nearby houses flicker on.

"What's going on?" Someone yelled.

"It's fucking 3:30am in the morning!" Another man shouted.

"Call the police!" Naruto yelled again.

"Kami-sama, he's bleeding-!"

"Call the police and an ambulance!" Naruto stopped yelling as he heard many voices gasping and shouting their concerns at him. A crowd of people had gathered around him, and someone came running up to him, trying to help bandage his bleeding wounds.

"Cool sword dude," a random kid said from behind him. Naruto only half paid attention to this comment as people began pressing what looked like kitchen dishcloths on his bleed body.

"Sorry kid, best I had in the house," the man tending Naruto's chest wound apologized as he unrolled some gauze. The police followed by a medic squad. The medics approached Naruto and began to take over caring for Naruto's wounds as Naruto hastily shouted instructions to the police about where Kyuubi was, and what had happened. The medic continued bandaging Naruto's wounds when the actual ambulance arrived.

Naruto was carted off to the hospital, the siren screaming overhead. Naruto felt dazed as he reached the hospital and was then wheeled through the halls of the hospital on a stretcher, flying past people.

"Did Kyuubi do this?" A familiar voice asked as Naruto found himself being hauled into the air off of the stretcher and then onto a bed. Naruto looked up to see Dr. Tsunade frowning worried down at him. Naruto merely nodded as he looked up at all the people who appeared ready to do surgery on him.

"Naruto!" Sasuke's distant voice came. Naruto's heart leapt as he heard before he saw his best friend coming towards him. Sasuke was okay! The doors to the operating room burst open. Sasuke ran in, followed by two police officers that Naruto didn't recognize.

"Mr. Uchiha, this is most unsanitary, leave!" Tsunade bellowed, her voice slightly muffled due to the medical mask that she had placed over her mouth.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, ignoring Tsunade. "What hap-"

"Leave!" Tsunade bellowed again.

"It's okay," Naruto said reassuringly. "I'll be okay. Go," Naruto said. Sasuke hesitated before glancing over at a fuming Tsunade, and then back at Naruto.

"I'll be waiting right outside," Sasuke promised.

"Okay Naruto. I'm going to give you something to put you to sleep for this," Tsunade said. Naruto nearly panicked, not wanting any more drugs in his system, but then calmed down because he knew that being sewn open while awake probably wouldn't feel too good either. "Count back from 100."

"100, 99, 98, 97, 96...95...94...93..." All went dark.

Naruto woke up groggily for the umpteenth time that day, hearing voices coming from outside the doors of the room he was in. 'Guess the operation's done,' Naruto mused.

"-not going to happen!" Tsunade yelled from the other side of the doors. Her voice was so loud Naruto felt as if she were actually standing in the room next to him.

"Tsunade, you must see it from a-"

"Get the hell out of here you freak!" Tsunade hollered back at the unknown male voice. It was much quieter, but still audible. Naruto didn't like the sound of it.

"Tsunade-"

"I'm not letting you touch this boy. He's been through enough already. He doesn't need to become your lab rat, or, from what I hear, lab snake-"

"All unproven accusations-"

"But knowing you, Orochimaru, all true the same. Get out!" Tsunade yelled again.

"Tsunade-" the man called Orochimaru began, but there was a resounding smack, and then a crash, and several screams.

"Tsunade-sama! You can't just hit him!" a voice scolded.

"The hell I can't! I just did," Tsunade's voice was angry, and the next thing Naruto knew, the door to his room burst open and slammed shut. Naruto didn't know her well, but he could tell that this Tsunade was not someone to mess around with. "You're awake," Tsunade said, conversationally as she saw Naruto's wide eyes on her.

"It was kind of loud," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his hand, only then realizing that there were bandages on his right arm. He looked down, noticing more bandages wrapped around his torso. Naruto fiddled with his blankets, Tsunade looking at him gently, all anger from moments before vanished. "Were you talking about me?"

"Hai. The man outside wanted to do conduct, as he worded it, 'controlled experiments' on you. The media arrived after what happened with Kyuubi, and there are hordes of people here wanting to examine you. I'm sure there are many doctors who would love to see what abilities that Kyuubi has pumped you full of, but don't worry," Tsunade said, a large smile appearing on her face, "I can take care of them." Her voice softened and she looked at Naruto. "Both my little brother and my fiancé were diagnosed with deadly diseases, and died long before their age. However, both of them wanted to be doctors, head doctors at this hospital in fact," Tsunade murmured.

She shook her head. "To make a long story short, both of them decided to allow others to perform, as they called them, "experiments" on them, in order to try and figure out ways to cure their diseases for the better of mankind. It was their choice, but I believe that the testing that was done to them only sped up their early deaths. I promise I won't let anyone do any more experiments on you unless it is with your consent, Naruto," Tsunade promised gently. Naruto couldn't help but feel a wave of gratitude for her.

"Thank you," Naruto said sincerely.

"Well, now that you're awake, I will send your friend back in. He was here by your side until only a few minutes ago when I kicked him out to get something to eat. He looks worse for wear, and I'm sure that he will be happy to see that you're awake," Tsunade said, as she walked back towards the door and yelled out of it. "UCHIHA! Get in here!"

Naruto felt his head rattle, wondering how anyone could be so loud, but grateful anyway when Sasuke appeared thirty-seconds later.

"Sorry," Sasuke said, just the slightest bit out of breath. "I had to run here. I was getting food in the cafeteria lounge here. It's two floors down, but I managed to hear you anyway," Sasuke said, frowning as he looked at Tsunade. He had obviously come to the conclusion she must be extremely loud when he looked past her to look inside the door. "Naruto!" He called, seeing his friend awake.

"You look terrible," Naruto said, a smile crossing his lips. Sasuke's usual smirk seemed weaker than normal, but he smirked back nonetheless.

"Look who's talking. All those times you make fun of my house being haunted, and all this time it's you who's been the mummy," Sasuke said, pointing at all of Naruto's bandages.

"No, your house is really haunted. You've just been collecting scary beings, and I guess I finally got added to the collection," Naruto smirked back. Tsunade rolled her eyes at their bizarre banter and left the room, calling behind her shoulder.

"You have twenty minutes. Then I will have to do another examination to make sure you're okay to be released." Tsunade shut the door behind her. Sasuke looked over his shoulder at her.

"She's been really helpful. Normally they'd keep you in here for observations, but she's pulling some strings to get you out of here. She told me that a few doctors have popped up that want to do some testing on you and your condition because of its healing properties. None of them look friendly," Sasuke said darkly.

"Yeah, she told me," Naruto said, nodding. Sasuke looked at Naruto, his smirk faltering.

"What happened Naruto?" Sasuke asked, his voice faltering. Naruto looked away. Everything was too fresh in his mind. He felt too helpless, too vulnerable. He had all sorts of judo and jujutsu training and yet he hadn't managed to use it very effectively. Hadn't that been the whole reason that he had taken it up in the first place? To prevent him getting attacked again like what had happened with Kenji? Yet here he was, lying bandaged in the hospital.

"I don't want to talk about it right now. I'll tell you later. I promise," Naruto said. Sasuke looked unhappy at the decision, but all he could do was nod. There was a moment of silence when Sasuke looked at Naruto, and Naruto felt the feeling of helplessness intensify because he had never, never before seen Sasuke look at him like that, look at him with sympathy and just a bit of pity.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have left the room-" Sasuke said, his guilt spilling over.

"No it's not, teme. Kyuubi would have just gotten you then too," Naruto said firmly. That was the one thing that he had been grateful for, that Sasuke hadn't had to suffer through anything. Sasuke looked like he wanted to say more, but swallowed his words.

The awkward silence was interrupted as Naruto's stomach growled loudly.

"Can't a guy get some food around here?" Naruto asked sheepishly. Sasuke grinned.

"It is breakfast time," Sasuke said, both he and Naruto sharing the same thought about how long the night had seemed.

After Sasuke called one of the nurses to bring up a tray of food, and after Tsunade had come and gone for Naruto's medical examination, Naruto finally got a chance to ask the question he was burning to know.

"What happened to Kyuubi?" Naruto asked as he finished off his food, having been interrupted in the middle by Tsunade insisting on checking to make sure he was okay. All of his wounds had been miraculously healed.

"He's dead," Sasuke said through a bite of toast that Naruto had given him from his tray.

"Dead?" Naruto asked, pausing in mid bite.

"Hn. Apparently there was a fox in the room-"

"Yeah, he let it in your house to make a distraction," Naruto said off-handedly. Sasuke paused, waiting to see if Naruto would elaborate any more about what would happen, but when he didn't, Sasuke continued.

"Well, the thing was half-starved. Like you it's got a _huge_ appetite because of the parasite in it, so when Kyuubi was bleeding all over the place, the thing lunged at Kyuubi's throat. The police also suspected that Kyuubi was rather cruel to it, so it might have had it out for him."

"He was cruel to the little fox," Naruto said darkly, musing over what had happened. There was a strange sort of peace that welled within Naruto. He knew that Kyuubi was gone, and he felt that the little fox had gotten revenge for everyone. "What happened to Akatsuki?"

"Akatsuki? Dawn? It's two hours past daybreak already. You slept for a while after your surgery," Sasuke said confused. (AN: Akatsuki means dawn/daybreak in Japanese.)

"Akatsuki's the fox's name," Naruto said.

Sasuke shrugged. "Animal control probably has it."

"I hope those creepy doctors don't get a hold of it," Naruto said, nodding outside the door. The two finished off the breakfast before either spoke again.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked about the police," Sasuke said slowly.

"About the police?" Naruto asked confused.

"The police stationed outside the house, watching it," Sasuke murmured. Naruto's eyes went wide.

"I completely forgot! What happened?" Naruto said.

"Mr. Akamichi was shot. He's in stable condition, but the bones in his left arm shattered. Mr. Nara chased after you and Kyuubi, but Kyuubi ran him off the road into a tree. He's okay. He was lucky. Just a concussion. His police car is totaled though," Sasuke explained. Naruto felt his anger at Kyuubi well up again, feeling that the bastard got what he deserved being mauled to death by one of his own "patients." Sasuke continued. "Obviously Mr. Nara radioed for an ambulance to come to my house. They took Mr. Akimichi and me along for the ride. I er," Sasuke mumbled the last bit, "I was so unwilling to stay here and be checked out by a doctor that the one police officer that had arrived here to question me actually arrested me for 'unwillingness to cooperate with an officer.' They had-cuffed me and everything," Sasuke muttered.

Naruto stared at Sasuke for a moment before throwing his head back and laughing. Sasuke grinned rather sheepishly. Tsunade came in a few minutes later, telling Naruto that he was free to leave after he filled out the police report.

"And you need to fill out yours too, Uchiha," Tsunade said pointedly. Sasuke sighed, and Naruto couldn't help but grin at Sasuke.

"I'm going to get fired for sure," Sasuke sighed, and Naruto's grin vanished instantly.

"What?" Naruto asked, his face going pale.

"I'll have a record now. I guess I'll just resign," Sasuke said. Naruto's mind began to whirl. He hadn't expected that. Here, Sasuke had merely tried to find him, and he had gotten in trouble. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right.

"B-but, all you did was-"

"Hit an officer," Sasuke muttered.

"You _hit _him?" Naruto said, aghast.

"Yeah. The guy was pretty lenient when he wrote up the report. Like I said, he put it down as 'unwillingness to cooperate with an officer.' I guess he understood my hysteria, but still..." Sasuke said.

"But that's retarded. I mean, your job will surely not care, right?" Naruto asked, hesitantly. Sasuke shook his head.

"Doubtful." Sasuke suddenly smiled at him. "I don't really need to work anyway. I've got enough money to do without it. It'll give me time to finish the ceiling."

But no matter what Sasuke said, Naruto knew, as he sat there in the hospital bed, staring at Sasuke, Sasuke was deeply upset. He would have to quit his job. There were few things that Naruto and Sasuke did not talk about, and Sasuke's work was one of the few. Sasuke hardly talked about it at all. He worked, he did what he needed to do, and then he left it at the office when he was with Naruto. Naruto felt horrible for laughing when Sasuke first told him, not even thinking about the fact that it would affect Sasuke's job.

In some regards, Naruto knew that Sasuke would not have cared if he had stayed or not at the job in the long run, but the fact was that it would be _shameful_ to be dismissed in such a way.

Even in 21st century Japan, shame was not something one could live with. And Naruto felt horribly guilty for putting Sasuke in a position that would shame him. At first he had found the entire thing extremely funny, now Naruto didn't know what to do.

"Uchiha," an officer said as he appeared at the doorway. "We need to talk with you for a moment alone please." Sasuke merely nodded in response to the policeman, murmured, "I'll be back," to Naruto and left the room. Naruto felt utterly miserable.

Suddenly flashes of images began to assault Naruto. Images of Kyuubi coming at him with the needle, shooting the fox, stabbing him…Naruto shook his head, and thought of Sasuke.

"Why am I being such a wimp?" Naruto asked shakily to himself. He was trying to brush off the whole ordeal. He had seen plenty of terrible things happen to people in the movies, why was he freaking out now that it had happened to him? Everything was over. He was okay. Naruto took in a deep breath, wishing that Sasuke would come back. He had seemed to chase away any and all fears that he had had.

Someone knocked lightly at the door before opening it just a crack to peer inside.

"Naruto?" a voice said tentatively. Naruto looked up to see Sakura peeking her pink-haired head inside the room.

"Hello Sakura," Naruto said, smiling, glad for a distraction.

"There's a police officer that would like to discuss what happened between you and Kyuubi. Tsunade asked if I would be here with you. That way, if you don't want to answer anything, you just look at me and I'll say that you're too medically unfit to answer - even if you fully are. You don't need to tell them anything they don't really need to know, okay?" Sakura said, winking at him. Naruto smiled at her gratefully.

"Thanks," Naruto said appreciatively. Sakura motioned to someone behind her that Naruto couldn't see, and a police officer came in. True to her word, if Naruto didn't feel like going into too much detail as the officer questioned him, Sakura kindly said that he only had to answer if absolutely necessary in fear of upsetting her patient. The interview didn't take too long, and before the officer left, Naruto had a question of his own to ask.

"Ano-sa, my friend, Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto started, hoping that this particular police officer was not the one that Sasuke had hit. There had been a lot of police around the hospital since Kyuubi had been such a high profile murdered. Naruto even checked to see if he could see any bruises. Thankfully, he couldn't. "Sasuke, uh, he - uh was trying to help find me. I-I don't think that he really should get written up. I mean, the police were there at the house and everything already, so everyone knew that he was just as involved as I was. Can you help get the charges dropped?" Naruto pleaded.

The dark-haired police officer looked at him, thoughtfully.

"That's a difficult area," the officer said off-handedly.

"Please Uncle Asuma?" Sakura said, piping up. Naruto turned to her.

"Uncle?" Naruto questioned, looking back and forth between the two of them, thinking that they did not look at all alike.

"His wife, my Aunt Kurenai, is my Mom's younger sister," Sakura said, as if reading Naruto's mind. Then she turned back to her uncle. "Please?" she asked again.

"I don't know Sakura. This is one of those gray areas," Asuma said.

"Oh _pleeeeease_ Uncle Asuma," Sakura said, almost batting her eyelashes. Then a sudden idea seemed to hit her. "I know! Why doesn't Sasuke come over and you and Aunt Kurenai can meet him and see how nice a guy he really is?"

"He punched me right in the jaw," Asuma said, rubbing his hand over his short beard on his chin. Naruto winced. So this _HAD_ been the one that Sasuke had punched.

"But Naruto-kun is so adorable! Who wouldn't want to try and save him?" Sakura said, pointing at Naruto. Naruto's eye twitched at being called adorable, but he knew Sakura really was trying to help. Asuma sighed.

"Look, your aunt is having a few friends over tonight for a dinner engagement. Why don't you come and bring Sasuke. If your aunt finds him acceptable, then I'll drop the charges," Asuma said.

"You mean if Aunt Kurenai can convince him to do some baby-sitting for her?" Sakura said amused. Asuma shrugged.

"I'll see you tonight then?" Asuma asked. Sakura nodded, and then left the room. Sakura turned to Naruto.

"Uncle Asuma's pretty laid back. I think my Aunt will convince him to drop the charges," Sakura said kindly towards Naruto. "If you were legal age to drink, I'd invite you along too. " Sakura said gently. Her voice suddenly changed and she had a knowing smirk on her face. "But of course, you're legal age to do, other things, of course." Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Sakura got a strange, almost maniacal look in her eyes.

Suddenly, Naruto was very afraid.

Before he knew what was happening, Sakura had a hold of his hands, and was staring into his eyes with bright stars practically beaming out of them.

"Oh! You should have seen it! Sasuke was so upset that he couldn't come after you. True love knows no boundaries! I've never seen Sasuke-kun want so desperately to do anything as he did wanting to fly to your side to save you. It was so romantic! I knew from that night when I came over that he was head-over-heels for you. Oh, to see him wanting to rush off to save his dearest love. How long have you been a couple? Is he a good kisser? Do you have sex often? Is he a wild one in bed? I'm so sorry that it's not me he's with, but if he wants to be with another man, than I'm glad he's with you! You're so kawaii!" Sakura squealed excitedly.

Couple? Good kisser? Sex?! Naruto stared at her open-mouthed, unable to speak. Sakura giggled again.

"If you two made a video, it'd totally sell for big bucks," Sakura said delightedly.

"I-I, w-we, I mean," Naruto tried stuttering out, but was saved having to say anything more when Sasuke came walking back into the room.

"Hi Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said happily. Sasuke looked back and forth between Naruto and Sakura, and narrowed his eyes, finding the situation very strange. "Have fun you two! See you tonight, Sasuke-kun," Sakura chirped as she left the hospital room.

"What's going on?" Sasuke said, confused.

"You're going to a dinner party tonight with Sakura. Apparently it was her uncle that you slugged. If you go with her, he'll drop the charges," Naruto said, shaking his head slowly, trying to register what Sakura had said, and wondering how she could switch to being so professional to so fan-girlish in such a short period of time.

"I don't want to go to a dinner party. Especially not tonight with everything that happened to you," Sasuke said angrily, clearly not liking how someone else had made plans for him. Naruto shook his head.

"I'm not a baby. I'll be fine. You don't need to coddle me," Naruto said, a little more coolly that he had intended to. Didn't Sasuke understand that he needed to go to this party in order to save his honor? Sasuke muttered something that sounded like a feeble disagreement, but they didn't talk about it any more.

"Come on. Let's get out of here before this day can get any worse," Sasuke said, half-jokingly as he tried to ease the unusual tension that had risen between the two friends.

* * *

Sasuke looked at Naruto. 

"You went a little further than just recounting what happened with Kyuubi," Sasuke said, musing out loud. Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"I didn't want to just leave at what happened. I mean, I just..." Naruto trailed off, looking over to the side.

"You're not weak, Naruto." Sasuke murmured gently, reading what Naruto was trying to say. Sasuke gave a small smirk. "You just liked reminiscing how I got in trouble," Sasuke said jokingly.

"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me what happened at the dinner party. And then about what happened afterwards. You've been dragging your story out for so long Sasuke. I want it all out," Naruto said as he looked at Sasuke. "How did you, you who doesn't drink, get so plastered that night that you came back, tied me up, and-"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, cutting off Naruto from saying anything else. He didn't think he could bear it to hear Naruto actually say the word rape. "I'll finish it. I'll finish the story," Sasuke took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, remembering the night in strangely blurry, yet somehow vivid details as he began telling Naruto the exact details he had been demanding from walking through his door.

* * *

:-) Yes, the next chapter will finally reveal how Sasuke screwed up so badly. FYI, I posted a one-shot yesterday entitled "Sleepless Nights" if you can't wait for a bit of smut. Let me know what you think of this chapter! - Jelp 


	7. Chapter 7: That Night

Here it is folks; the answer to the question you've all been burning to know since you clicked on the link for this fic. Let me know what you think about the answer. ;-) 

WARNING: Raw yaoi lemon ahead.

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 7: _That_ Night**

"I was hoping you could tell me what happened at the dinner party. And then about what happened afterwards. You've been dragging your story out for so long Sasuke. I want it all out," Naruto said as he looked at Sasuke. "How did _you_, you who doesn't drink, get so plastered that night that you came back, tied me up, and-"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, cutting off Naruto from saying anything else. He didn't think he could bear it to hear Naruto actually say the word rape. "I'll finish it. I'll finish the story," Sasuke took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, remembering the night in blurry, yet somehow vivid details as he began telling Naruto the exactly what he had been demanding since first walking through his door.

Time seemed to freeze for Sasuke as his mind was thrown forcibly back in time, remembering the way that Naruto, who stood before him _now_, ironically had the same strangely focused expression on his face while Naruto had laid on his bed while he was getting ready for the dinner party _then_. Sasuke, also like back then, paced back and forth. As he paced, Sasuke began the ending of his story...

* * *

"Why am I going to this dinner party again?" Sasuke muttered. He was pacing back and forth in his bedroom, his bare feet thudding gently on the carpet as he tied a silken tie around the collar of a starch white dress shirt. Naruto watched him from the bed, an amused, yet very focused expression on his face.

"Because you slugged a cop and now you have some ass kissing to do. You can practice with mine if you want," Naruto said, as he watched Sasuke's pacing come to a sudden halt.

"W-what?" Sasuke said, his mouth agape at the suggestive comment from Naruto. Naruto waved his hand at Sasuke as to dismiss it. Sasuke, still not sure that he had heard Naruto right, decided he wasn't sure if he could handle finding out if Naruto really had made such a lewd joke directed at him. Sasuke, quite frankly, didn't want it to be a joke.

"What's the big deal about going?" Naruto asked, confused, but still completely amused by Sasuke's strange an uncharacteristic behavior.

"Sakura will think it's a date," Sasuke said.

"Maybe, maybe not," Naruto said off-handedly. "Do you want it to be a date?" Naruto asked, his voice quiet. Sasuke turned and glared at Naruto.

"Naruto, you know I don't like her. Sakura's tolerable and all, but I'm not interested," Sasuke said as he finished knotting the tie.

"I dunno. I think she seems rather nice. She's smart, and absolutely head over heels for you," Naruto said, a strange note to his voice that Sasuke didn't miss. Sasuke's glare turned to a confused look.

"Nice, maybe, but she's also clingy and not my type," Sasuke said firmly as he picked up his dress coat jacket, wondering why Naruto seemed interested in prospective girlfriends for him and hoping that he wasn't imagining the slight jealousy in Naruto's voice.

"You mean because she called you three times to make sure that you were coming while making sure that she had given you the directions perfectly?" Naruto said smirking as Sasuke grimaced.

"She also wanted to check up on you to make sure you were okay," Sasuke said as Naruto winced, Sasuke remembering just how motherly and over protective she had seemed each time she called to make sure he knew where the house was as well as to make sure that Naruto was well. "My phone's been ringing off the hook between Sakura and Mrs. Yamanaka calling here to check up on you," Sasuke said. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I felt bad for bringing the Yamanaka's in the middle of this mess-"

"And I'm telling you again that it's not your fault-"

"-but I can't deny that it didn't feel good to know that they came rushing back from their 'vacation' in order to check and make sure I was okay. Mrs. Yamanaka told me that she knew I liked staying here, but I have to come over tomorrow to see her so she can see for herself that I'm still alive," Naruto said, rolling his eyes.

"When I answered the phone she said Ino had even called Sakura to get the full medical report," Sasuke said, happy that his friend had people that cared about him, especially with everything that had gone on, but something in him was beginning to sting. Something in him felt hollow. He swallowed, looking away from Naruto. "You should go over to the Yamanaka's while you're waiting for me," Sasuke said, his voice coming out in a strange waver.

"No, I want to stay here to hear right away if everything went okay," Naruto said.

"You'll be alone here," Sasuke murmured.

"It won't be the first time," Naruto said, looking at his friend strangely.

"Yeah, well, I don't know that I want to go to this stupid thing," Sasuke muttered.

"What's the big deal about you going tonight?" Naruto asked, knowing that something was definitely up, but not able to place his finger on what. Naruto decided he needed to look closely at Sasuke to see if he could tell what was wrong with his friend, though he needn't have bothered; Sasuke made sure to convey his point loud and clear.

"Big deal? What's the 'big deal?' Naruto, _you were stabbed through the chest by a psychopathic homicidal maniac_. I thought you were going to _die_. Forgive me but I really don't want to leave you here all by yourself mere hours after that happened," Sasuke almost yelled, and he threw the jacket onto the bed next to him, and began to unloosen the tie he had just spent several distracted minutes trying to tie. "That's it. I'm not going," Sasuke said firmly.

"Geeze Sasuke. Stop babying me. I'll be fine," Naruto said grumpily. Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the front of his shirt, and pulled him close to his face.

"Don't you get it Naruto? I thought you were going to be killed. You were tortured! Now you expect me to just leave you here by yourself? Here, where I ought to have been when Kyuubi lured you downstairs in the first place?" Sasuke exploded. Naruto narrowed his eyes and knocked Sasuke's hand away.

"Damnit Sasuke, why are you freaking out? You were fine at the hospital, and now you're raging like a lunatic. I'm not a little kid. I can take care of myself. I took care of Kyuubi alright, didn't I?" Naruto said angrily. Sasuke didn't appear to hear him.

"_And what am I supposed to do when I come back and you're lying dead in a pool of blood?_ A-and you're not moving and you've no pulse and right next to you is Mom and Dad and cousin Uessa and auntie Achiko and-" Sasuke began rattling off random names of his dead family members, his voice raising hysterically, his eyes wide and frightened. Naruto looked at Sasuke utterly horrified as he realized that Sasuke was reliving the day that he had come home to find his family butchered in the middle of the living room.

Naruto slapped Sasuke hard across the face. Sasuke's hysterical ranting stopped, his face set off to the side, his chest heaving.

"Sasuke, you need to get out of this house," Naruto said slowly. Sasuke shook his head, and swallowed, his usual calm and collected manner returning to him.

"I didn't mean to go off ranting like that," Sasuke muttered. Needing something to do with his hands, he gratefully began tying his tie once more feeling embarrassed. He honestly hadn't meant to go raging on like that, and he had a feeling that Naruto was right. He had suppressed the images of finding his family's bodies lying in blood as he entered the house for so many years now, yet they were suddenly returning to him. A part of him, no doubt as a self-defense mechanism, had forgotten that he had been the one to find them. Seeing the blood on the floor in his kitchen, wondering where Naruto had gone had resurfaced memories he had long since suppressed. Being back inside his home and no longer worrying about Naruto's immediate safety seemed to have brought the memories back in full force.

"Sasuke, you need to go to that dinner party tonight. You need to go there and suck up to Sakura's uncle and aunt, and let loose. You need to go, so that you can come back, and know that I'll still be here, alive, and waiting for you to tell me how everyone's asses taste," Naruto said, grinning. Sasuke shuddered at the disgusting thought, and then glared at Naruto.

"You're grotesque," Sasuke said bluntly, secretly grateful at Naruto's transition from topics.

"And _you_ just acted like a poltergeist got a hold of your body. You were totally possessed!" Or maybe Naruto hadn't quite transitioned from that topic. "Man, you should have seen your eyes. I think you were foaming at the mouth a bit there. Or maybe you just have rabies or something. No wait, I got it! I finally figured it out. You're a werewolf! You're foaming at the mouth because-"

"I was not possessed and I'm certainly not a werewolf. They're dirty and unclean," Sasuke said amused as Naruto went back to his old guessing game of how the mansion was haunted, though glad that Naruto was poking fun of his outburst instead of coiling away from him. "I enjoy cleanliness," Sasuke added pointedly.

"Hmm, good point, neat freak," Naruto said thoughtfully. Sasuke merely rolled his eyes at the comment, grateful that Naruto wasn't questioning him about his outburst. He finished buttoning up his suit jacket and looked at himself in the mirror. After deeming himself decent, he began to head for the door.

"Are you sure you'll be okay here after everything that happened today?" Sasuke asked concernedly as he was about ready to leave.

"I'll be fine. Your fridge will probably be a whole lot emptier when you get back, but otherwise I'll make sure that I won't burn the house down or anything," Naruto said grinning, before his face turned a tad more serious. "And I promise to be alive when you get back - or if I'm not I'll come back and haunt the place to keep you company," Naruto smirked. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I'll see you later," Sasuke said as he left.

"Later bastard," Naruto called down the stairs after him.

The entire drive to Sakura's aunt and uncle's place – even with full in depth, practically blow by blow details after the three times that Sakura had called earlier – Sasuke couldn't help but think about hardly anything but Naruto and almost missed several roads. Why had he let his emotions go off the wall like that? Why had he gone ballistic? But Sasuke knew the answer despite wanting to confront it.

He loved Naruto. It wasn't like that was new to him. He'd been trying to seduce his friend for some time now, yet it had never occurred to him that Naruto would be taken away from him physically. Even that first month after they had met, and Naruto had worried that the social services would take him away from the Yamanaka's home, Sasuke hadn't been worried that they would be permanently separated. But to think of Naruto being forcibly ripped from his life: he didn't think he could stand to live after that.

Half an hour later, Sasuke pulled up to Sakura's relatives' house, which was a decent size, but not nearly as big as Sasuke's. Sakura was waiting at the door for him.

"Hello Sasuke-kun," she greeted happily. Sasuke nodded at her, noticing that she was wearing a dress that matched the same shade of pink as her hair.

"Thanks for putting a word in for me," Sasuke said, trying to sound grateful, but knowing it had come out rather cold. Sakura frowned at him.

"You're worried about Naruto, aren't you?" Sakura said wisely as she led him inside the house and began to introduce him to her aunt, uncle, younger cousins, and a horde of guests, several of them he recognized as being a few of the doctors that were at the hospital who wanted to examine Naruto. He idly wondered if Sakura's aunt Kurenai was a doctor. He asked her, and she nodded. "Don't worry though. No one here will try and corner you to get Naruto to be a guinea pig. Actually, while we're talking about Naruto, I called him while you were on your way here. Well, actually I called your house and he answered. Anyway, my aunt cornered my uncle and made him change the report already. She was rather angry with him for filing anything in the first place; you were clearly distressed. I don't think my uncle realized that you were Uchiha Sasuke, and, well," her voiced dropped, "didn't take in consideration about your past. He said that it made more sense, your hysteria about wanting to make sure you friend was okay after your terrible loss with your family all those years ago."

Sasuke felt his body go rigid, and he looked away. Why was he reliving his past tonight? First his own memories, and now having his family's massacre being brought up again like that; it was unnerving. Sakura seemed to realize she had said something to upset him. She wasn't the first person to upset him by talking about his family. The only person he had ever been able to talk to about his past had been Naruto. Sakura quickly hurried the conversation along.

"I-I was calling to say that you didn't need to come here because you seemed upset about leaving Naruto, but when I talked to him, he said you needed to loosen up anyway. I promised him I would help loosen you up a bit. I can't break my promise, now can I?" she said, smiling brightly. Sasuke grumbled something incoherent, feeling slightly betrayed. Naruto had practically told Sakura to keep an eye on him.

"Hn," he said, in his usual noncommittal way, looking around thinking it unlikely that he'd be able to loosen up at a dinner party. Sakura brightened anyway.

As the evening progressed, Sasuke had to admit that the party really wasn't going that badly. He mingled with people. He talked of random things, the doctors actually asked concerned questions about Naruto, or at least, feigned concerned questions – the guy with the silvery white hair in a ponytail and huge round glasses wasn't very convincing with his sympathy in Sasuke's opinion.

Sasuke felt edgy mingling at first, as though everyone could tell that the reason that he was there was because he had punched the host right in the chin, but no one seemed to pay him any more mind than the fact that he was probably the host and hostess's niece's date. His mind did keep drifting back to Naruto, but despite Sasuke's constant thoughts about his friend, the evening went smoothly and uneventful.

Well, at least, it did until dinner rolled around.

Sakura's cousins and the children of some of the guests were ushered off to another room so that the "grown-ups" could have some privacy, aka, the drinking would begin with the dinner meal. Sasuke followed Sakura into a dining room off towards the back of the house; this was the part that he had been dreading. He hated the way people acted so stupid when they were drunk, and he knew that these types of parties tended to lead to someone getting wasted and embarrassing themselves shamelessly. Sasuke sighed, looking around at the guests, wondering who was the unlikely victim of the party.

Sasuke sat down on Sakura's right, feeling very awkward, never attending any dinner parties if he could help it, and certainly had never accepted any since he had met Naruto almost two years ago. Also, he had never stayed for the whole thing, and had never had to stay for dinner before. Sasuke was not social, and he was not used to eating with a group of people anymore. He adjusted his collar, feeling rather hot and uncomfortable in the late August evening despite the air conditioning that Sasuke could hear humming gently in the background.

"What would you like to drink Sasuke? We have an excellent selection. Mibaijiu rice wine from China, some soju from Korea (even a Japanese brand of souchuu that tastes almost as good) some awamari that I received from Okinawa just last week, Monde green tea, or sake?" Kurenai asked Sasuke gently, the ever-charming hostess. Sasuke wracked his brain. He did not like alcohol, and as far as he could tell, all of the drinks she had offered were alcoholic save the green tea, though he couldn't recall hearing the brand "Monde" before. He personally preferred brewing Ito En's Genmaimatcha green tea, but he supposed if it was being served at a dinner party, it would probably be of high quality.

"Green tea," Sasuke said. She nodded, left, and returned with a glass full of bubbling green tea. He took a sip and tried to hold back a grimace. It had a strange taste to it, and he had a feeling that this Monde brand was supposed to be like some sort of carbonated version like sparkling cider. He sipped at it, all the same, trying his best not to be rude and was grateful when the food came – it tasted much better. He ate his dinner in silence, listening to the idle chitchat on either side of him, wondering why people bothered to throw these parties, when he heard himself being addressed. He turned to look down the table at Asuma.

"How is Naruto doing?" Asuma asked, and Sasuke couldn't help but smile as he noted that Asuma seemed to be as uncomfortable with these dinner parties as he did. Sasuke idly wondered if this was Asuma's silent payback for punching him.

"He's doing alright. Healed completely and is back to his normal, energetic self," Sasuke said.

"How did you and Naruto meet?" Kurenai asked politely.

"He lives nearby and sort of wandered in looking for a ball that was thrown over my hedge. We talked and found that we had a lot in common," Sasuke said, shifting uncomfortably. He didn't like being questioned about his personal history. He reached his hand out hastily, grabbed his glass, and drained it of the strange tasting green tea. He was about to get up and get another glassful over at the small drinks table off to the side, but Sakura stood up before he did, grabbed his glass, and returned in a flash with his glass refilled.

"Naruto's in foster care, staying at Ino's parents' place," Sakura said to her aunt. Kurenai, obviously aware of Sakura's past friendship with Ino, was intrigued.

"That must be good for Naruto. Mr. and Mrs. Yamanaka are very nice people. I remember meeting them on a few occasions," Kurenai said brightly.

"I hear you're an affluent businessman," Asuma said, switching topics abruptly, though still addressing Sasuke. Sasuke wondered if him "hearing" that he was an affluent businessman meant that that was what was now in his police file, or if Sakura had told him.

"I do well enough," Sasuke said. It was true. He really _did_ do well. He wouldn't be able to spend so much time hanging out with Naruto and keep his job if he didn't do everything to perfection while at the office.

"He's actually very young. He's only just turned twenty last month. Barely legal to drink in Japan," Sakura said smiling. Sasuke didn't know what to say to this. He wished Naruto were there with him. He hated trying to be sociable. Even when he had to be at work he was at least partially in control of the situation. He felt like he was being dissected here. He quickly drained his glass, hoping to have an excuse to get up and do something, perhaps to get away from the stares, but Sakura snatched the glass from his hands again as she got up to do it for him. He glared at her back. Sasuke knew she was just trying to be polite, but still, this was the second time she had made him stay put when he wanted to leave the stares.

"Only twenty? You seem much more mature," one of the other guests said. Sasuke didn't say anything, and he was hoping that the floor would swallow him whole. Now that he thought of it, things were starting to go a bit fuzzy, and his stomach was feeling rather strange, though he couldn't figure out why. Maybe he could use that as an excuse to go home early? He frowned, wondering why he was feeling so off all of a sudden. The food tasted alright. The only thing that had tasted off was the tea. He decided he wouldn't have that much more of it. He would just take tiny sips at it, seeing as how he couldn't use it as an excuse to leave the table to get himself his own drink. Sasuke gave a curt nod of thanks as Sakura handed him his newly refilled glass. He took a sip of it, and strangely enough it seemed to taste better than the first two glasses.

"Only just turned twenty, hmmm? You seem to be drinking an awful lot of that green-tea liquor for someone who should still be a novice drinker," another one of the guests said disapprovingly. Sasuke coughed on the bit of tea that he was in the process of drinking down at these words.

"L-liquor?" He choked out as he sputtered out some of what was in his mouth. "Green tea liquor? This isn't normal green tea?" Sasuke asked, aghast, hastily putting his glass down.

"I'm so sorry Sasuke. I thought you knew that it was when I offered you _Monde's_ green tea," Kurenai said, looking upset with herself. Sasuke shook his head. Well, now he knew who the poor fool at the table was that would get drunk and make a fool of himself. It was him, and he had was certainly going to make an ass of himself if he hadn't just done so.

"I didn't realize," Sasuke said, trying to keep his voice steady to save some of his dignity as he dabbed his napkin at what he had spit out.

"Sakura, I thought you said that Sasuke liked having a few drinks," Kurenai said reproachfully.

"I forgot," Sakura said, though Sasuke saw, through his increasingly blurry vision that she didn't seem like she had really forgotten. Sasuke remained silent through the rest of dinner, though he felt strangely giddy at times, and wondered what that strange buzzing sound was. Bees shouldn't be in the house. Sasuke shook his head, willing himself to remain focused, his embarrassment at himself the only thing from allowing the alcohol to completely cloud his judgment, at least, for the time being.

"I better take you home Sasuke," Sakura said about twenty minutes after everyone had gotten up from the dinner table. She was eyeing his increasingly pale complexion (if that were possible) as well as that he was getting clammy, as Sasuke was attempting to sit down on a chair, but kept sitting on the arm of it.

"Chairs don't need arms. Arms have armpits. Why would chairs want armpits? They stink," Sasuke muttered as he put his hands underneath his own armpits, crossing his arms across his chest, a strangely concentrated expression on his face, as he once again tried to sit, only to fail by sitting on the arm of the chair. Sakura looked around nervously, eyeing the guests that were giggling at Sasuke. Sakura herself had to stop from laughing.

"Sasuke, I better take you home," Sakura repeated, concerned.

"My car - my car doesn't have armpits does it?" Sasuke asked, his words coming out slurred.

"N-no, it doesn't. How about I drive your car home, and I can call a cab to get back here?" Sakura suggested gently, grabbing Sasuke by his upper arm and leading him away from the chair.

"Bit of a light weight, aren't you?" Asuma said having witnessed Sasuke's "conversation" with the chair, smiling through the cigarette now snug between his lips, having an after dinner smoke. He clearly enjoyed seeing Sasuke unable to handle even the smallest bit of alcohol. Sasuke didn't respond to Asuma and just said good-bye. Sakura ushered Sasuke out of the door, and Sasuke handed her the keys, grumbling as he did so.

"I'm so sorry Sasuke," Sakura said as she got into his car and began to drive him home. "Naruto said to loosen you up and I thought some alcohol would do the job. Instead it seemed to make you unhappy and sickly. You would _not_ be a good drinker. I know Monde's is 35 percent alcohol, but you did only have three glasses of it, yet you seem really out of it," Sakura said. Sasuke did his best to focus his glare on her, though his eyes felt strange, like they wouldn't move on their own any more.

Sakura drove back slowly, and stopped several times to let Sasuke out of the car to reexamine the contents of his dinner.

"This is disgusting," Sasuke said, as he used a tissue to wipe his mouth for the second time, his wits coming back to him somewhat at the unpleasant situation he found himself in, off to the side of the road, puking his guts out. He felt horrible. He got back in the car, grumbling slightly, and shut his eyes, hoping he could fall asleep to get away from the pain…

* * *

"You didn't know that Monde green tea is a type of liquor?" Naruto asked, barking a disbelieving laugh despite himself. Sasuke grumbled something. "And you only had three glasses?" Naruto asked, shaking his head.

"I'd never had any alcohol before," Sasuke muttered. "And I haven't ever since."

"Obviously you can't hold your liquor," Naruto said, sighing. He then looked off to the side of the room, his face a mask. "So what else happened on the car ride home?" Naruto asked, his voice catching.

"Nothing," Sasuke said. Naruto turned his head to look back at Sasuke, his face set in confused lines.

"Nothing? What do you mean 'nothing?' How'd you go from how you and Sakura were at the dinner party to what happened between you and me if there wasn't anything else that happened between you and Sakura?" Naruto asked. It was Sauske's turn to look confused.

"What are you talking about? What between me and Sakura? She dropped me off at the front of the house, and took a cab. She had called it before we left her aunt and uncle's house so it was waiting for her by the front of the gate. She got my drunk, and I was pissed. I was glad to see the back of her," Sasuke said, watching Naruto.

"What? But, I don't understand," Naruto said. Sasuke looked at him.

"_You_ don't understand? _I_ don't understand what _you're_ talking about. What don't you understand?" Sasuke asked, looking at Naruto, his pulse quickening for some strange reason.

"I don't know!" Naruto said, running his hand through his hair. "I – I think I might need to add some details to your story." Naruto felt his mind travel back in time, that entire night standing out more vividly to him than what had even happened with Kyuubi…

* * *

Naruto rushed down the stairs as he heard the front door open.

"Everything go well?" Naruto asked grinning. Sasuke looked up at him and winced. Naruto's grin fell, thinking that things must not have gone well with the way Sasuke was grimacing. "Sakura said when she called that everything was already okay," Naruto said, confused.

"Yeah, yeah. Everything's fixed. You're loud," Sasuke added and he walked past Naruto, stumbling slightly as he walked up the stairs. As he passed by Naruto, a whiff of alcohol hit the younger male.

"You've been drinking?" Naruto asked, surprised. He honestly hadn't thought Sasuke the type. Sasuke merely waved a hand at him as he stumbled up to his bedroom. Naruto followed him up to the fifth floor, looking amused at Sasuke's wobbly frame.

Naruto looked at the slightly tipsy Sasuke as his friend laid down on his bed, loosening his tie from around his neck. Naruto frowned, looking at Sasuke.

When Sakura had called, she had teased him once again about Sasuke liking him, and he had been able to think of nothing else the entire time that Sasuke was gone. He wanted to know if Sasuke liked him because he had finally come to the conclusion that he liked Sasuke. Now, Naruto wanted to know if Sakura was right: wanted to know if Sasuke really did like him as more than a friend. He especially wanted to know if he could figure out what Sasuke had been thinking just the day before when he had jerked him off. Naruto shook his head, thinking about all that had happened since then. It seemed like so long ago. Everything that had happened with Kyuubi and then the hospital and the dinner party, it all seemed impossible to have fit in one day.

Still, Naruto was never a patient person, and he decided to see if he could find out what Sasuke was thinking as soon as possible. What better way to do so than with someone who was tipsy and maybe even drunk? Drunken people always tended to tell the truth because their brains were so wasted that they could never come up with coherent lies.

Naruto figured the only way that he would figure out whether or not Sasuke liked him was if Sasuke tried to jerk him off again. He looked over at Sasuke who was lying on his bed, and trying to untie his tie, having even more trouble than when he had tried to tie it earlier. Gently, Naruto sat down on the edge of the bed, facing the TV on bureau off to the side, the remote control in his hand.

Naruto's hands shook as he pressed play on the porn movie he had found. He had paused it just as it was starting the sex scene. Naruto stole another glance at Sasuke, as he unzipped his pants and began to slowly massage his cock. He felt the bed shift as Sasuke sat up, abandoning all attempts with the tie. Naruto could practically feel Sasuke's eyes on him.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, his voice slightly slurred.

"Watching a porn more. We normally do at this time of night," Naruto said, trying to keep the excitement from his voice, Naruto waiting to see if Sasuke would indeed help him off again, like he had the night before.

"Not tonight Naruto," Sasuke said, though he made no movement to tear his eyes away from Naruto, nor did he move to click the TV off. Naruto merely glanced back at Sasuke as he continued to palm his own arousal. Sasuke turned his head away from Naruto's challenging glance. Naruto looked back at the TV, wondering if this had been a good idea after all. As soon as his gaze returned to the TV, he once again felt Sasuke's eyes on him. After a full minute of just staring at him, Sasuke still hadn't made any movement to help him, but Naruto decided he might as well get-off anyway, despite his failed plan. All the rush and adrenaline from what had happened with Kyuubi had welled up within him, and Naruto decided he could at least get it out of him even if his plan had failed. He began to increase his pace of jerking himself off, thinking about Sasuke doing it instead, moaning lightly.

"Stop that," Sasuke said quietly.

"No," Naruto said, trying to be defiant, but it came out as more of a moan.

"I said, stop," Sasuke said, his voice strangely husky.

"No," Naruto repeated.

"Naruto," Sasuke hissed.

"Make me," Naruto challenged, and with that, Naruto felt his arm being forced away from his own body. Sasuke was off the bed in an instant, and had whirled around in front of Naruto. Naruto looked at Sasuke with angry eyes, before Sasuke grabbed both of Naruto's arms and stood him up forcibly, kissing his mouth hungrily. Naruto felt shock take him for a second before he kissed back as Sasuke parted Naruto's lips and forced his tongue inside, Naruto moaning into his first kiss, feeling utterly on fire and quite drunk on Sasuke's kiss. Sasuke tasted like the alcohol that he smelt like, though with a hint of green tea as well.

Naruto felt himself panting into the kiss and the next thing he knew, Sasuke had pulled Naruto's shirt above his head, flinging it to the side, before pushing Naruto's cock back through Naruto's boxers - the momentary contact of Sasuke's hand on his cock feeling like ecstasy to Naruto - before pulling both Naruto's pants and boxers down to his knees, quickly re-exposing Naruto's manhood. Sasuke pushed Naruto onto the bed, falling on top of the younger man and began to erratically grind his clothed erection against Naruto's exposed one.

"Naruto," Sasuke moaned, grabbing Naruto's wrists, forcing them above his head.

"Sa-Sasuke," Naruto breathed, never expecting stoic Sasuke to be so wild as he felt Sasuke's partially untied tie tickle him as Sasuke moved above him, the tie stroking his bare skin as it became loose with Sasuke's movements.

"Damnit!" Sasuke cursed, before pulling abruptly away from Naruto. Before Naruto had time to register what Sasuke was doing, Sasuke grabbed Naruto, and flung him so that he was faced down on the bed. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hands again, but this time, something was in his hands. Naruto felt, rather than saw, as Sasuke used his tie, the tie that had taken him ages to tie earlier, to bind Naruto's hands to the middle post of the headboard. Naruto heard as Sasuke hastily ripped off his own clothes, and then quickly exited to his master bathroom, before re-emerging once again. Naruto's body twitched in excitement as he felt Sasuke begin to lather something against his ass. He heard Sasuke begin to slap the same stuff on himself, and Naruto turned back to watch as Sasuke was slicking his cock up with the Vaseline that sat carelessly on the bed. Naruto watched Sasuke lather thick amounts on himself, watching erotically as he saw Sasuke stroking himself, the image imprinted into his mind.

Then, a sudden wave of panic seemed to hit Naruto as he realized his situation. They were moving way too fast. He was tied to a bed and Sasuke was preparing him - preparing him for _what_?

"Sasuke," Naruto half moaned, half shuddered as Sasuke laid heavily atop him and slid his cock along the crack between Naruto's cheeks. Bare skin ground against bare skin, their bodies becoming hot and moist with sweat. Sasuke was grunting quietly atop of Naruto as he slid his cock along the crevice, clearly relishing in the way he felt his cock tighten in between the cheeks. After thrusting himself just along Naruto's skin for a time, Sasuke pulled back from the warm body beneath him, and then slowly inserted his finger inside Naruto's ass. Naruto hissed at the strange feeling, but couldn't help it as a moan also escaped him.

"S-stop it," Naruto said, but Sasuke didn't seem to hear him. Sasuke slid in another finger, and then another. "St-stop," Naruto said, his body writhing, stretching at Sasuke's demands. It hurt, but it didn't at the same time. Naruto knew he was breathing hard as Sasuke's fingers moved, thrusting inside him. "Stop," Naruto repeated a little more loudly, but Sasuke still ignored him as he picked up his pace. The pain he had initially felt was dulling, and Naruto couldn't help panting at the feeling. "Stop," Naruto panted, squirming and moaning in utter pleasure at Sasuke's ministrations. Sasuke pushed his three fingers in and out of Naruto, Sasuke stroking his cock with his free hand, clearly enjoying what he was doing to Naruto.

Sasuke looked down at Naruto, a part of him realizing what he was doing was too fast, too soon, but he had wanted Naruto so badly for months now, wanting to feel him beneath him, and he knew he was letting the alcohol cloud his judgment, yet Naruto had seemed to want him as much as he wanted him. Sasuke threw caution to the wind and took his arousal into his hand and guided his head to Naruto's puckered entrance. But just the slight feeling of his head touching Naruto's warmth, and Sasuke lost it. He repositioned Naruto's body so that Naruto was supporting his upper body weight with his hands, and so that his lower half was now supported by his knees, pushing Naruto forward so that his face was pressing into a pillow before Sasuke lost all coherent thought and thrust relentlessly into Naruto, meaning to make it feel good for him, yet unable to control how hard he was going.

Naruto might have been moaning in pain or pleasure, but it fell on deaf ears as Sasuke was lost in the feeling of being inside Naruto. He grunted as he bucked furiously inside of Naruto, his body as well as Naruto's sweating with the exertion, his movements slick with the Vaseline as well as the sweat. A moan escaped his lips.

Sasuke dimly became aware of Naruto repeating something over and over again, but Sasuke felt like it was coming from miles away. Sasuke rammed harder and deeper into Naruto, Naruto's back arching against him, as Sasuke felt himself so close to coming inside Naruto's tight warmth.

Sasuke felt something warm and slightly sticky add to the mix of his sweat and Vaseline inside of Naruto, unaware that his pounding, his relentless thrusting had torn Naruto's insides, making him bleed. Instead of taking the time to wonder what it was, Sasuke just thrust harder into Naruto, picking up his pace, going wildly as he felt the body beneath him shuddering and moving.

"Stop, stop, stop," Naruto repeated over and over again, his mind whirling. He wasn't even aware what he was saying anymore. He had been saying stop since Sasuke had started. The first thrust has been pain beyond pain, but now, now he didn't want it to stop. His mind was gone, and he couldn't think, merely feel. The pain wasn't pain anymore but deep pleasure. He had felt himself tearing, felt his body opening, yet it didn't hurt, not in the way it should have, not now. It felt so good, so good, and Naruto felt his orgasm building as he was pounded into the bed beneath him, relishing in the strange way that his body was being pleasured by the man he had come to care for so deeply. His mantra became more grunt like. "Stop, ugh, stop," Naruto moaned, grunting every time Sasuke thrust into him, hitting a spot inside him that made his penis pulse in ecstasy, and his body feel glorious.

Sasuke was still lost in his own world, as he finally came, ejaculating in several thrusts inside of Naruto, as Naruto's words finally hit his ears, Naruto saying "stop" repeatedly finally registering. Sasuke quickly pulled out of Naruto, cursing himself, and cursing Sakura for getting him drunk, his seed spilling partially into Naruto, as well as onto the bed, as he looked at Naruto in utter horror as his body was still responding to the pleasure he had felt.

"Fucking, Sakura," Sasuke hissed angrily, trying to place the blame on her; she had been the one that had made him look at Naruto in a different light, and she had been the one that had gotten him drunk tonight. "Sakura," Sasuke hissed again. But then his face fell. Sakura had not made him do this to Naruto. _He_ had done it. He and he _alone_ had done this to Naruto.

'Oh God. He didn't want it. He didn't want me! I forced him. I raped him,' Sasuke's mind seemed to process this horrible truth as he backed away from the bed.

"Kami-sama," Sasuke breathed, thinking Naruto had been begging him to stop the entire time, which – he had, but not realizing that he had been saying "stop" in bliss, not realizing that Naruto had turned them into grunts of pleasure. Naruto was meanwhile oblivious to Sasuke's confusion, as he rode out the best orgasm of his life, his body shuddering in utter pleasure as his mind began to whirl on a horrible downward spiral, feeling utterly heartbroken and used. He fell as far forward as his tied hands would allow, tears streaming from his eyes in sudden emptiness.

Sobs of utter betrayal wracked Naruto's body. 'Why did Sasuke say Sakura? Why did he say her name _twice_?' Naruto asked himself, feeling suddenly used, feeling utterly betrayed, though Sasuke was oblivious to having shouted Sakura's name out. It didn't make sense for Sasuke to have said Sakura's name after he had been so wildly, so completely involved inside of his body. He should have been saying his name. He should have been imagining him, been imagining Naruto.

Meanwhile, all Sasuke could think of was how he had raped the one person that meant the world to him, his best friend, and forced lover, thinking Naruto was shaking in sobs of unwillingness, looking down horrified as he finally saw the blood on himself and on Naruto.

"N-Naruto," Sasuke choked out, quickly pulling on his pants and boxers, not caring as his own cum and Naruto's blood smeared on the inside of his clothes. He quickly untied Naruto's hands from the headboard to allow his friend the freedom to move again. "I'm, I'm sorry, Naruto. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I thought, I mean, I thought you were-" Sasuke said, his words dying, unable to say "enjoying it" when he could clearly see Naruto's blood, his hands shaking as he went about his room, pacing back and forth, his shaking hands pulling at his hair.

Naruto's insides froze as Sasuke apologized. Sasuke apologizing meant that Naruto had been right. Sasuke hadn't wanted him. He had been imagining Sakura. He was just somebody he could get off on. Something must have happened between him and Sakura at the dinner party, but Sakura must have turned him down tonight. Or maybe she hadn't? Maybe they had just done this?

But why, why hadn't Sasuke wanted him? Why had he just fucked him so damned wildly if he hadn't wanted to? Wasn't he good enough? Wasn't he at least as good as Sakura for Sasuke? Naruto slowly pushed himself off the bed, looking at Sasuke with betrayal in his eyes.

Sasuke locked onto Naruto's eyes, seeing the betrayal, thinking he was mad for what he had done, rather than what he had just said.

"Why Sasuke?" Naruto asked, his eyes swimming, not understanding what had changed. "_Why?_" Naruto growled angrily. For one glorious moment, Naruto thought that Sasuke had wanted him like he wanted Sasuke, maybe even like he loved him.

"I thought - I mean - I thought you were--" but Sasuke couldn't finish the sentence, and Naruto's imagination allowed the words "someone else" or "Sakura" fill in the blank. Naruto looked about him, as though waking from a dream. He got off the bed and quickly dressed.

Sasuke merely stared at Naruto as Naruto seemed to ignore the blood and semen that dripped down his leg. Sasuke looked away, feeling disgusted with himself, yet unable to move. Naruto looked over at Sasuke once again, confusion and hurt laced in his eyes before leaving the bedroom without another word. Sasuke stood frozen as he heard his front door slam even from five floors above. It was another two minutes before Sasuke slid to the floor.

Sasuke began to cry for the first time since his family had been massacred.

* * *

Sasuke had tried phoning Naruto the next day, but no one at the Yamanaka's answered. He tried calling again the following day, but again, no one answered. Finally, two days later, Sasuke walked to the Yamanaka's hoping to talk to Naruto, not even caring if Naruto had told them, and that they would throw his sorry ass in jail if it just meant explaining to Naruto how sorry he was, and that he had never meant to hurt him. Sasuke had been so fazed by the whole ordeal that he had not bothered to go to work for the past few days.

Sasuke knocked on the door. Mrs. Yamanaka opened it, and looked at Sasuke pleasantly.

"Hello Yamanaka-san. Is Naruto in?" Sasuke asked. Mrs. Yamanaka just looked at Sasuke utterly confused.

"Didn't Naruto tell you? We got a phone call a few days ago saying that they found a relative living in another country that would be willing to take him. All that publicity that came with Kyuubi's death reached overseas to where his mother's cousin was living. Apparently he didn't know that his cousin had died, and was eager to be with family once more, especially his cousin's son. He arrived here yesterday, and the two of them left early this morning," the blonde woman explained. Sasuke stared opened mouthed at her. Shock was too weak a word to describe Sasuke's feeling at those words.

"Isn't that awfully fast? Will he be okay just to pick up a different country's customs and language so quickly?" Sasuke asked frantically. Naruto couldn't have possibly have left. He just couldn't have.

Mrs. Yamanaka shrugged sadly.

"He's been here for over two years. We had hoped we could keep him longer, and were thinking about adopting him. He finally seemed like he was happy here, but, when he met his relative, he seemed to really want to go with him as soon as possible," Mrs. Yamanaka shrugged, and sighed. "I thought he liked it here with us, but I guess with what happened recently with Kyuubi and all..." she trailed off sadly.

"I'm sure he did like it here," Sasuke said, trying to keep the hurt from his voice. "But it's hard when you've lost your family, and then to find out you have some relatives you didn't know about - I'm sure Naruto meant no disrespect to you," Sasuke said, trying to sound reassuring, inside feeling a horrible guilt well up inside him. 'You left because of me, not because of Kyuubi, didn't you, Naruto?'

"Still, I'm surprised that he didn't say anything to you before he left. I told him that you had left him messages on the answering machine. Didn't he call you back?" Mrs. Yamanaka asked concerned. Sasuke swallowed, his mask falling.

"We - we had a misunderstanding. I wanted to try and apologize," Sasuke said, feeling utterly rejected.

"Oh, poor thing! I'm sure you two can work it out! Here," Mrs. Yamanaka quickly ran back inside and came out again with a piece of paper. "Here's Naruto's new address. Why don't you try writing to him? And of course, you can always e-mail him," Mrs. Yamanaka said kindly. Sasuke merely nodded, muttering a "thanks" before walking off.

He returned back to his house, looking around at all of the rooms inside, looking around at the places that he and Naruto had had so much fun. He looked at the kitchen where he had fed Naruto his first vegetable meal, the living room where they had played poker. Every inch of this place, the places that he had once had the haunted feeling of his deceased family, that places that had been purged and purified by the light that was Naruto.

And now, now Naruto had left him too, and this time, his most important person wouldn't come back because it was _his_ fault. Sasuke's face went void of emotion, his eyes turned hollow. The next time his expressionless mask would falter would be the next time he saw the only person in the world that truly mattered to him...

* * *

"I must have written you a hundred letters and e-mails," Sasuke said, turning away from Naruto to stare at his bookshelf, a thousand painful thoughts and memories assaulting him. He pulled out a folder, shaped like a large book, from his bookshelf. He pulled out the articles, caressing them fondly.

"I kept track of you," Sasuke murmured, as he looked at the grades he had managed to get from the foreign school were Naruto had finished out high-school years, the college entrance essays he had illegally obtained, and the newspaper clippings of the young orphan, living with his mother's cousin, Umino Iruka, who had inherited a large some of money from his parents on his seventeenth birthday. There was another article about Naruto donating a large sum of his money to the foster care system. "There were never any pictures of you though," Sasuke muttered, more to himself than to Naruto.

Naruto's eyes were shut tight, realizing what Sasuke had not from his narrative, only partially listening to what Sasuke was saying now. Sasuke seemed to take his silence as a need for him to continue.

"Why the hell did I tie you up and fuck you so relentlessly Naruto? Why did I…rape…you? Because I thought you had wanted me to make love to you as much as I wanted it. I didn't realize you were saying stop until it was too late." Sasuke's eyes closed as he tried to block out the painful memories, his version of things contorting so that Naruto's voice of years past sounded broken and pained, rather than pleasured and wild.

"What?" Naruto breathed, not believing he had heard Sasuke right. Did Sasuke just say that he thought he had _raped_ him?

"I'm sorry Naruto. I'm so sorry. I truly thought that you wanted me to. I would never if I-" Sasuke's voice was cut off by Naruto grabbing Sasuke's shirt yet again, and looking into his eyes, frantically searching.

"I was saying stop, but not for you to really stop," Naruto said, breathless. Sasuke searched Naruto's eyes, confusion passing his normally expressionless face.

"But you said stop. I knew you were saying something into the pillow, but I wasn't," Sasuke swallowed, feeling guilty, "I wasn't listening. I thought - I had hoped - you were moaning. Then I heard you finally say "stop" and I stopped. And then I saw you crying and I-" Sasuke stopped as Naruto sat down heavily into Sasuke's chair, placing his head in his hands.

"All this time..." Naruto muttered, a hollow laugh escaping from his throat, realizing it had been a horrible misunderstanding the _entire time_. Sasuke had wanted him. And all these years, he had thought something else. And all these years, Sasuke had been guilt tripping himself because he had thought he had forced Naruto. Naruto closed his eyes, wondering what Sasuke must have felt, living with that kind of guilt. Raped him? Naruto chocked back another hollow laugh. Naruto had been trying to seduce Sasuke in the beginning.

"Naruto, I know it'll never be enough, but I'm so-" Sasuke couldn't finish his sentence as lips were pressed roughly against his. Sasuke stiffened, and that softened in blissful surprise as he kissed Naruto back. Naruto pulled away from the kiss after a few moments, looking at Sasuke.

"I did say stop at first, but then, I really did want it. I wanted you. I thought- I thought it was you who didn't want me. You started apologizing right away; I believed you had been thinking you were screwing Sakura, or someone else altogether," Naruto said, watching as Sasuke's eyes went wide, before his face went completely blank of emotion.

"How could there have been anyone else but you?" Sasuke asked. Naruto merely shrugged, not believing his ears.

"I don't know. You said Sakura's name and I thought you were imagining her, but it makes sense now. You were mad at her, not, well, thinking I was her," Naruto said, his voice cracking as he looked at the man that he had loved, still loved, but more heart wrenching, had misunderstood. "Sasuke, even though it's been years, I never forgot you. I kept all your e-mails, your letters. I came back last year when I heard you were made CEO. I managed to sneak into the party that old dude was throwing for you."

"The one I didn't show up to?" Sasuke asked, shaking his head. "I hate dinner parties."

"Yeah, I can tell why," Naruto muttered. "I was mad. Hell, I've been fucking pissed for ages and wanted to knock sense into your head. I didn't understand what had gone through your head - though apparently you didn't understand what was going through mine either - but I never stopped thinking about you."

Sasuke felt his heart clench painfully. A misunderstanding. Nearly five years of misery and pain had been due to a stupid misunderstanding. Sasuke closed his eyes, still deeply angry with himself. Despite Naruto's words of reassurance, it was still rape. Naruto had said stop, and that was what had mattered. But now, here Naruto was, looking at him with such intensity that Sasuke wondered that he could still breathe.

"You and I went through so much," Naruto said, swallowing. "I-I should have talked to you. I should have asked you then, to your face. None of your letters ever made it sound like you wanted it – wanted _me_. They all sounded so regretful. I couldn't bare it," Naruto turned his face, clenching his face, so angry - so terribly angry with himself for not knowing Sasuke better. How could he have been so stupid?

"It was my fault," Sasuke said as he looked at Naruto.

"We were both stupid, weren't we?" Naruto said, trying to crack a smile. Sasuke merely nodded, wondering what to say, wondering how to voice what he wanted to desperately know. Wondering if perhaps, maybe, they could still be friends - or something else - again. No one had ever understood him like Naruto had. No one had even come anywhere close. One misunderstanding, albeit extremely large, was nothing. It didn't matter. It was a horrible mistake, but Sasuke would get over that as long as Naruto wouldn't leave him again. Sasuke felt freed from the guilt that had wracked him for years, feeling like he could soar.

"Do you - do you still, or did you ever, love me?" Naruto asked breathlessly.

"Naruto," Sasuke murmured, looking into Naruto's eyes.

"Uchiha-sama?" a knock came at the door, interrupting their discussion.

"_What is it Haruka?_" Sasuke hissed enraged at the intrusion. Hadn't he specifically asked not to be interrupted? He was especially angry that she had done so at a time like this.

"Your wife is on the phone, demanding to know why you're not answering your cell phone, as well as why you haven't shown up for dinner as you two had planned," Haruka said. Naruto's eyes went wide, and Sasuke felt the blood drain from his face.

"Your wife?" Naruto asked icily, his blood running cold. Sasuke glared at Haruka. The woman seemed to realize she really shouldn't have interrupted and scampered away. "Your _wife_?" Naruto repeated, turning and rounding on Sasuke in horrible shock and disbelief.

"Naruto, let me explain..."

* * *

Don't hurt me! I can't help but write cliffhangers. So, uh, _anyway_…what did you think? Review at let me know. - Jelp

Just as a note, Monde is a Japanese company that makes green tea wine/liquor, and it is 25percent alcohol (I upped it a tad to 35 to get Sasuke drunk faster), and those other alcohols are really Asian rice wines as well.


	8. Chapter 8: Explaining Over Again

**Nameless Desires**

**Chapter 8: Explaining Over Again**

"Your wife?" Naruto asked icily, his blood running cold. Sasuke glared at Haruka. The woman seemed to realize she really shouldn't have interrupted and scampered away. "Your _wife_?" Naruto repeated, turning and rounding on Sasuke in horrible shock and disbelief.

"Naruto, let me explain-" Sasuke began.

"What is there to explain, Sasuke?" Naruto asked quietly. He cocked his head to the side, and suddenly plastered a very forced smile on his face. "You were lonely, so you decided to-"

"Naruto it's not like that at all-"

"Really, it doesn't matter," Naruto said, once again cutting Sasuke off. "I need to go," Naruto said, turning away from Sasuke. Naruto really did feel the need to go. He felt as though he were going to be sick to his stomach. He felt suffocated. He felt too much, and he felt if he didn't get away from Sasuke now, he would explode. After all that time, after all those years, Sasuke had cared about him, but now, Sasuke was taken.

"Naruto-" Sasuke said, his hand darting out and grabbing Naruto, whirling him around so that he was forced to face him. "I'm not-"

"Let go," Naruto demanded quietly.

"No, you have to listen to me-"

"Let go!" Naruto yelled, his other arm coming up to try and grab Sasuke's wrist, but Sasuke blocked him.

"Listen!"

"I'm tired of listening!" Naruto yelled, and he swung his fist at Sasuke. Sasuke dodged it, but it was the distraction that Naruto needed. He used a jujutsu move taught to him years ago to release Sasuke's hand. He knew it had hurt Sasuke more than he had intended to, but at that moment, he didn't care. He stomped over to the door and practically ripped it open in order to get out of Sasuke's office. Naruto all but ran down the hallway in his haste to get away from Sasuke. He felt sick. He felt utterly feverish at the thought of what he had just discovered. Sasuke had a _wife_.

All of this time it had just been a horrible misunderstanding. He had been so angry with Sasuke when Sasuke had seemed to regret having sex with him. In the end, Sasuke had truly cared about him, probably loved him. Naruto clenched his fist tightly, almost drawing blood from the way his fingernails bit into his flesh. He took a deep shuddering breath as he reached the end of the long hallway, feeling almost dizzy as he put his foot down onto the first step.

He felt the air leave his lungs as Sasuke jumped at him from behind. Both of them went flying down the stairs in a tumble of arms and legs. Naruto gasped, rolled away from Sasuke, and then sprang to his feet as he and Sasuke landed on the fourth floor landing. Sasuke too leapt to his feet, both of them unhurt from the fall, having learned how to properly fall in judo and jujutsu.

Neither of them spoke verbally. Instead they allowed their eyes to speak of the unsaid challenge. The need to fight each other was too strong to ignore. Sasuke wanted to pound sense into Naruto. Naruto wanted to rid himself of the pain and return it to Sasuke via force. Without saying a word, they both quickly took off their shoes, their feet sinking slightly into the carpet. They took up fighting stances, both feeling as though they had just practiced together yesterday.

Naruto wasn't sure whether or not Sasuke had managed to keep up with his judo and jujutsu, but Naruto knew that he himself was extremely rusty. He hadn't practiced it once since he had walked out of Sasuke's house. Now, he wished he had. He knew his body was not as fit as it used to be, and he idly wondered whether or not Sasuke had kept up. Sasuke stared at Naruto with a hurt expression on his face. He seemed to know that Naruto wouldn't listen to him if he tried to speak again.

Sasuke approached Naruto slowly, and Naruto knew immediately that Sasuke had not kept up either; he was clearly using the more fluid and slower motions of jujutsu, something that he used to do when he was sore. Sasuke reached his hand out, and grabbed the collar of Naruto's shirt, his right hand grasping the front of the collar, his left hand grasping the back. Naruto gripped his left hand onto Sasuke's wrist, his other coming up on the underside of Sasuke's bent elbow, touching it for just the briefest of moments, before feigning an attack to his leg. His hand quickly moved to the front of Sasuke's arm, grasping it tightly Naruto bent his knees and easily flipped Sasuke onto his back.

Still, Naruto had to duck as the force of the land made Sasuke's left leg come back up towards his head. In a normal match, Sasuke's foot would have stopped just inches before his face, but this was _not_ a sports match. If the kick had landed, it would have broken his nose.

"Damnit," Naruto cursed at being unable to flip Sasuke onto his stomach due to Sasuke trying to ram his heel into Naruto's face.

As Naruto jerked away from Sasuke's foot, it gave Sasuke the time he needed to bounce back to his feet. It was Sasuke again who initiated the next attack, both of his hands going for Naruto's right forearm, but Naruto grasped Sasuke's right arm in his left. He outstretched both of their arms for a brief moment before Sasuke ducked underneath Naruto's right side. He swung both Naruto's arm and body around in a half circle before gaining enough momentum to flip him over, forcing Naruto to land on his back. Naruto rolled on the floor, Sasuke still grasping his arm. In normal circumstances Sasuke would have been able to pin him, but in normal circumstances, they would be in a fighting circle, and not so close to a wall.

Sasuke seemed to realize the exact direction Naruto's momentum was taking them right before he brought up his hand to prevent his face from slamming directly into the wall. The side of his face and his hand thudded against the wall heavily, making him loosen his grasp on Naruto. Sasuke regained his composure and lost no time at all in directing a kick at Naruto's back as he rolled away from Sasuke. Sasuke's foot connected, and Naruto let out a gasp, but still rolled over again and knocked Sasuke's foot out of the way with his forearm as he spun. Sasuke lost his balance slightly as his foot swung out. He stumbled backwards.

Naruto once again sprang to his feet, his foot sliding slightly as his sweaty sock slipped on the thick carpet. Naruto shifted his body ever so slightly, switching to one of his favorite judo positions as Sasuke ran at him, attempting to kick his foot out from under him to make him lose his balance. Naruto pivoted on the spot, his body turning 180 degrees, as Sasuke practically ran into his back. The move that Sasuke had attempted was redirected as one hand grasped around the front of Naruto's torso, and the other grabbed around his neck. Naruto bent his knees in a flash as his arms shot out to pin Sasuke's one arm against the front of his own torso, while meanwhile grasping Sasuke's hand around his neck. He could feel Sasuke's weight press against him as he lifted Sasuke from behind him.

Naruto bent over as all of Sasuke's weight was lifted onto his back as he flipped over him. Naruto kicked back his right foot, further propelling him and Sasuke into the air. Naruto was forced to do a standing split, a loud rip sounding as the motion tore the seat of his pants. Naruto continued to move his foot even higher, pushing off the ground to propel himself completely into the air. Even though it was just a few milliseconds, it felt like an eternity as Sasuke's body was pressed firmly against Naruto's back, their bodies flipping in the air.

Sasuke landed heavily on his back, and Naruto fell on top of him with his back pressing down heavily into Sasuke's chest. Sasuke gasped for air only briefly before Naruto's momentum caused him to spring once again to his feet. Sasuke used his hands to push himself up. Both he and Naruto were gasping for air, neither of them able to perform the movements that used to come so easily and effortlessly years ago.

They stood staring at each other, Naruto still looking furious at being attacked from behind and Sasuke looking slightly desperate.

"I'm not married," Sasuke said finally, his chest heaving. Naruto showed the slightest hint of surprise before his eyes narrowed.

"Engaged then?" Naruto spat out.

"No. I don't have a girlfriend, or a boyfriend either," Sasuke said quietly. Naruto felt the horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach die down somewhat, and he lowered his raised hands.

"But your aid said-"

"I have ears. I know what my aid said. You see, I-"

"SASUKE!" A loud voice from somewhere below them made Naruto and Sasuke turn. Naruto heard the thumping of the footsteps before he actually saw the pink-haired female stomp up the steps. Sakura didn't seem to notice Naruto and seemed momentarily surprised to see Sasuke standing on the fourth floor landing rather than in his office, but she did not hesitate before she began to yell at him. If she had not been so loud, Naruto knew that he would not have heard her due to the shock her appearance had given him.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY LEAVING ME ALL ALONE IN A RESTAURANT WAITING FOR YOU FOR ALMOST TWO HOURS?!" Sakura bellowed angrily. Even though Naruto had heard her, her words were only barely registered as he stared at her, or rather, her very swollen belly.

"I thought Haruka said that you were just on the phone. I was under the impression that you were still at the restaurant, not on your way here," Sasuke said nonchalantly.

"DOES IT MATTER WHERE I WAS WHEN I CALLED?! WHY WEREN'T YOU AT THE RESTAURANT WHEN YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD BE THERE?!"

"You're pregnant," Naruto said, horrible comprehension dawning as he looked back and forth between Sasuke and Sakura. Sakura whirled around with amazing grace and speed for someone who looked like they were about ready to give birth at any moment. She looked quite as surprised to see him as he did to see her. Sasuke watched the two of them eyeing up each other, looking as though he wanted to die.

"Naruto?" Sakura said questioningly. Naruto couldn't do more than nod as he stared at her, the feeling as though he wanted to be sick to his stomach even worse than before. She blinked once, and the look of rage that had been replaced by surprise at seeing him was quickly replaced with a large smile. Sakura practically threw herself at Naruto, squeezing him in a tight hug. "Naruto!" She squealed delightedly.

With Sakura's large belly pressing directly into his stomach, Naruto really did have to throw-up. He quickly pushed her to the side, and emptied his stomach onto the carpet. He half wanted to throw-up on her for taking Sasuke, but that would have been a low blow.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry Naruto. I wasn't even paying attention. You're complexion was clearly waxy, and you look sweaty. I didn't realize you were ill. Come, and we'll fix you up right away!" Sakura said, her doctor's instincts kicking in with such an alarming speed that Naruto didn't have time to register that she had gripped his hand and was dragging him down the hallway to the bathroom on the fourth floor. Sasuke followed behind reluctantly.

As Sakura told him to sit on the edge of the bathtub (which was across from the toilet, in case he needed to hurl again), Sakura began to rummage around in the medicine closet off to the side. Sasuke stood in the doorway, watching the scene with a bemused expression on his face.

"Of course if Sasuke had just answered his cell phone and let me know you were here, well _of course_ then I would have understood what was more important," Sakura said as she hastily went through the supplies in the cabinet, whose contents Naruto could not see. "You know he's been sick about you leaving for ages. He told me he royally messed something up between the two of you. Heartbroken and as grumpy as ever," Sakura went on, completely ignorant to Sasuke's glare or to Naruto's confused stare.

And Naruto was quite confused. Here he was, in Sasuke's bathroom, with Sakura thinking that he had some sort of upset stomach, when it was her presence and the fact that she was carrying Sasuke's baby in her belly that had made him sick. It had been she who had said that she wanted Naruto and Sasuke to be together, hadn't she? Yet Naruto knew that Sakura had liked Sasuke for ages. Maybe she had finally gotten her wish after all? On the other hand, why did she seem so happy to see him if he could be back to steal Sasuke away from her?

"Drink this. It will make you feel better," Sakura said, handing him some sort of concoction in a small paper cup. He was half tempted not to drink it, wondering if she had poisoned it, but that was an unfair thought for him to think. He drank it in one gulp. "Y-you don't know how good it is to see you," Sakura began, her voice catching. "I mean, to think, of you and Sasuke back together - I mean -" she began to sob. "And - it's like - you know - the ultimate - and - I mean - _oh Sai_!" Sakura said, sobbing hysterically out of nowhere before practically fleeing from the bathroom as she put her hands over her face as she ran out the door, past Sasuke who had moved just in time to not get run over from Sakura. Naruto looked up at Sasuke, utterly bewildered.

"Sai?" Naruto repeated confused. "I'm not sure that I know what the hell just happened," Naruto said. Sasuke sighed.

"Then _listen_. First of all, I'm not married, engaged, involved, or have I ever been romantically or sexually involved with Sakura. She's not my wife, though the servants around here jokingly call her that because she has been living here for some time now, and she nags me as though she _were_ my wife. Secondly, about two years after you left, someone named Sai contacted me. Long story short, it turns out that he's my second cousin on my Mom's side. Bit of an asshole, but he was family, and all I had, and I was all he had. He and I didn't really get along that well, but for whatever reason, he and Sakura hit it off spectacularly. They were married just under a year ago. However, four months ago, he was killed in a car crash. Sakura was newly wed and already pregnant. I invited Sakura to come and live here since she's technically family now and since she's carrying my second cousin once removed."

"Oh," was all that Naruto could get out for a moment, as he registered this information.

"Sakura and I still aren't together."

"I see." Naruto paused. "Well why the hell didn't you tell me all of this before?!" Naruto demanded. Sasuke's eye twitched.

"I was trying to, dobe!" Sasuke yelled back.

"Well you didn't try hard enough, and now you've made a pregnant woman upset!" Naruto chided him.

"You almost threw up on her," Sasuke said, a small smirk suddenly splitting across his face. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"You noticed that?" Naruto asked guiltily.

"You were obviously jealous," Sasuke smirked, "but very mistaken. Me, and Sakura, I wouldn't..." Sasuke trailed off, unable to finish his thought as the smirk fell from his face as he shivered at the thought of what he would have to do to get Sakura pregnant.

The two of them looked at each other for a few moments in silence. Sasuke gripped the frame of the bathroom door, staring down at Naruto. Naruto meanwhile gripped the edge of the bathtub, looking at Sasuke.

"Why did you come here today Naruto?" Sasuke asked quietly. Naruto didn't respond, and instead decided to look at the way his knuckles turned white when he gripped the bathtub harder. "You said you wanted answers from me. At one point you said you missed talking to me. Another time you said you wanted to come here for closure so you could forget about me. There's another deeper reason, isn't there Naruto?" Naruto continued to stare down at his hands, but Sasuke waited for Naruto to speak this time. Sasuke waited silently for a full two, agonizingly slow minutes before Naruto spoke.

"I'm going to let them do experiments on me. I wanted to make sure I had no unfinished business left before I started. Just in case," Naruto said, but the unspoken ending to his sentence hung in the air. 'Just in case I die.' Sasuke closed his eyes, as though trying to rid himself of some pain. He shook his head slightly, and reopened his eyes.

"You've made up your mind to do this?" Sasuke asked. Naruto merely nodded.

"I came back here specifically because I want to have someone I feel comfortable heading the research. I don't know if you remember Tsunade or not, but I contacted her some time ago about it. She promised me ages ago that she wouldn't let what happen to her brother and her fiancé happen to me," Naruto murmured. Sasuke nodded.

"I remember you telling me that when you were recounting what happened after Kyuubi," Sasuke paused. "Does Sakura know about this?" Naruto shook his head.

"I asked Tsunade not to tell her. I heard that they were still working together, and, you know, I wasn't sure if the two of you still talked or what not, but I still asked her not to say anything anyway. I also figured I had to come here and see you first, find out for myself what you were thinking that night. Sooner or later I knew that Sakura would see me at the hospital, and if you two were, well, whatever, then I thought she might tell you."

"So you wanted to tell me first?" Sasuke asked. Naruto nodded again. Sasuke clenched the doorframe even tighter. Naruto saw this, and he bleakly remembered the time that Sasuke had broken part of the table off at the police station when he had found out about Kyuubi going after him.

"Careful, or you're going to need to replace your door frame," Naruto said, grinning as he nodded towards Sasuke's death grip on the frame. Sasuke did not return his smile.

"So basically you came back, and now you're leaving again," Sasuke stated more than asked, his face stony and his voice cold. Naruto turned away from him again.

"I didn't know what I expected coming here. Not this, that's for sure," Naruto said as he twiddled the paper cup in his one hand. He crushed it and shot it towards the trashcan on the other side of the toilet. "It's not like I'm going to be gone forever, and I'll just be at the hospital. I don't even know what the tests and stuff will be like. I might not need to stay over night all the time. You know, I could always crash here if you wanted me to. I even have money now so I don't have to mooch off you," Naruto said, grinning again, but Sasuke refused to grin back.

"This is serious Naruto, what you're planning on doing. You were in your hospital room right after Kyuubi attacked you, and you didn't see everyone outside of it waiting for you to wake up. It was horrible. It was like they were waiting for you to do something miraculous. Obviously you had done something miraculous, but they wanted to see it for themselves. There you were, tortured, drugged-up, a stab wound to your shoulder, and you healed in record time. They were blood thirsty to try and get their hands on you," Sasuke said, trying to convey to Naruto just exactly how terrible the people that wanted to do experiments on him had been.

"Listen, Tsunade's not like that. She promised me. You met her; she's nice. She wouldn't-"

"It doesn't matter if she wouldn't! What matters is that there are others who would!" Sasuke said. Naruto frowned at him.

"Sasuke, what is your problem? Don't you understand the good this will do? We're back to being friends for less than five minutes before you start trying to tell me what to do," Naruto huffed angrily. Sasuke paused, realizing that Naruto had referred to him as his friend, but Sasuke still had to make sure he said everything he needed to.

" I can't just sit around and watch you get hurt, especially if I can stop it," Sasuke said.

"This isn't about me at all, though, is it? It's about you. You're afraid to lose me again, aren't you?" Naruto asked knowingly.

"You know my whole life has been about losing those that are close to me," Sasuke said, swallowing.

"Your family, me, and then, just recently, another family member you didn't know you had. That's why Sakura's here now, isn't it? It's not because you think she has no place else to go, it's because you're afraid to lose the last connection to your family that you have left. You need her and the baby close by for your own sanity," Naruto murmured. Sasuke didn't confirm this, but it was obvious by the look on his face how close to home Naruto had hit. "Five years may have passed, but I still know you better than I think you know yourself," Naruto said.

"Why is it that you make me feel so vulnerable?" Sasuke asked. Naruto smirked.

"Probably the same reason you make me feel so safe," Naruto said as he got up and placed a comforting hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"You tell any of this to Sakura and I swear I'll hurt you," Sasuke threatened. Naruto grinned widely, and scratched the back of his head.

"So...how about some more ramen?"

"Maybe, but if I were you, I'd want to take care of that rip in your pants," Sasuke said. Naruto's eyes widening, having completely forgotten about ripping them while his fight.

"Heheh. Got an extra pair I can borrow?"

* * *

Over Naruto's three bowlfuls of ramen, Sasuke convinced Naruto to stay the night, and possibly longer at his house. Everything between them had seemed to go back in time. They were best friends again, and Naruto might have just arrived at Sasuke's after he got home from school. Five years of pain and hurt were pushed to the back as the feeling of being reunited returned. Even their earlier fight on the fourth floor landing seemed far away, as though it had merely been one of their practice sessions.

Sasuke's staff was informed of Naruto's tentative stay, and Sakura was delighted to have another person at the house there. She was also happy to hear that Naruto wanted Tsunade in charge of the research. If Tsuande was in charge, in meant that Sakura would probably be working with Tsunade in order to help make Naruto as comfortable as possible with the tests they would perform.

"Of course, I'll have to wait until later to start helping. Next week is my last week at the hospital until I'll be on bed rest here. Sasuke works almost exclusively from home now, which is why I was trying to get him to come out to dinner with me before I will be house bound. Maybe the three of us can go out tomorrow night instead?" Sakura suggested happily.

"Sounds good to me," Naruto chirped. Sasuke merely nodded.

"What have you been doing these past five years?" Sakura asked Naruto curiously.

"My Mom's cousin," Naruto shot Sasuke a look, remembering that it had been Sasuke's Mom's cousin's son (what a mouthful!) that had recently passed away. He paused as he noticed both Sakura's and Sasuke's faces fall as they remembered Sai, "Iruka, is going on a world tour. He's been very supportive of everything I've decided as well. I figured since he'll be gone for a few years, now's the time for me to do this," Naruto explained.

"I'm glad you have someone who supports your decision," Sakura yawned. "Well, I'm going to get to bed," Sakura said as she yawned again and stretched her arms over her head. "She's getting antsy," Sakura added as she placed her hand on her rounded belly. "Have fun you two," Sakura said, waggling her eyebrows at them both.

Sasuke and Naruto both blushed at her obvious implications.

"Not happening. We haven't seen each other for five years," Naruto muttered, not noticing Sasuke's slightly crestfallen face. Neither of them had yet brought up where they stood; were they friends or something more? How soon was too soon after five years of separation? Was it still even possible?

"I'm going to head to bed too. You can sleep in the guest bedroom on the fifth floor. Everyone else is on the second," Sasuke explained, clearly still preferring his privacy away from everyone else, everyone else except Naruto. Naruto nodded as he got up and rinsed out his ramen bowl in the sink. The action was so normal and automatic that Naruto might never have left.

"Nothing around here really changed," Naruto murmured thoughtfully as he glanced around at the familiar setting. "I need to head out to my car and get my things, and then I'll turn in for the night as well," Naruto said.

"You can just borrow some of more my clothes," Sasuke offered as he nodded to the non-ripped pants Naruto wore.

"Thanks, but I'll be alright."

Sasuke didn't wait for Naruto when he went to get his things. He murmured a good night before hand, but didn't bother to wait for him by the front door. That was not to say that he didn't peer out one of his windows from the fifth floor, watching Naruto's every movement, making sure that he came back inside, listening for the sounds that indicated that he had come back in and had chosen a room to sleep in.

It was a losing battle even before Sasuke's head hit the pillow. He knew that he would not be able to sleep that night unless it was beside Naruto, to make sure that he hadn't left. Not that he hadn't _tried_ to sleep, but after an hour, he gave up. Sasuke got out of bed, just needing to see Naruto. He felt like a ghost in his own home as he glided through the hallway, the moonlight illuminating certain sections of the hallway where the doors were open, and he could see the light coming in from the windows. He stopped in front of the first closed door on the floor.

His hands shook as he placed them on the doorknob to Naruto's bedroom, his heart beating fast and hard against his chest. He knew he shouldn't be doing this; he knew that he should wait for Naruto to initiate something more, but he couldn't help it. Sasuke had to reassure himself that Naruto had indeed come back, and that there was a chance, perhaps a very good chance, that he could finally be with Naruto.

He turned the knob, and the door creaked ever so slightly, making Sasuke pause. The door was open wide enough that he could slip through. He wondered if the door creaked any more if Naruto would wake up. He sighed. A part of him knew that his fears were irrational. As far as he knew, Naruto was probably still a very heavy sleeper, but the fear that gripped him made it impossible for him to even dare take the slightest chance of waking Naruto. Sasuke slipped inside the bedroom through the door, leaving it open so that he could slip out of the room just as quietly later on. He wanted to see Naruto badly, but he didn't want to get caught doing it.

His bare feet sunk into the carpet as he walked over to the bed. Naruto lay in a tangle of blankets. His arms were outstretched, and one of his feet dangled off of the bed, the blankets half on the floor, and half tangled around Naruto's stomach. He only wore long pajama bottoms, and Sasuke had to tear his gaze away from the fact that the material, whether on purpose or not, seemed to have bunched around his crotch, giving off the illusion that Naruto might be sporting a rather large hard-on.

Sasuke willed himself not to think of such thoughts as he focused on Naruto's face. His friend looked peaceful and serene as he slept, and Sasuke couldn't help but notice how much he had grown in five years. Those five years had made him look even more handsome and more desirable than even Sasuke could have imagined.

Sasuke wasn't sure how long he stood there, gazing at Naruto, watching his friend's slow and steady breathing. A small ray of moonlight streamed in from the window falling across Naruto's stomach, leaving his beautiful face in the shadows as though to taunt Sasuke, making him want to get closer to see him better. Yet Sasuke didn't dare. He was still afraid, afraid of what he was capable of doing. There was a certain relief in knowing that Naruto had wanted him, had wanted Sasuke to have sex with him, but Naruto's words of "stop" still vibrated hauntingly in his ears. It hadn't been rape, but it would have been because Sasuke knew that he probably wouldn't have stopped. Even now, as Naruto lay there, even after five heart wrenching years of living with guilt, a large part of him still wanted to rip off Naruto's clothes and ravish him again.

The feeling scared him more than anything else. He feared that he couldn't control it. Never before had this particular desire felt so strong. Never before had Sasuke felt that by just _looking_ at Naruto that he would lose all sense of his being. He idly wondered if perhaps it wasn't the alcohol five years ago that had made Sasuke want Naruto so badly. Maybe something inside him had snapped, unable to ever be sated with Naruto?

Naruto's mere presence drew him in as though he were what kept Sasuke alive. Since the very first day that they met, since their very first conversation, something had drawn him to Naruto. Something had connected them in a way that excited and terrified Sasuke.

There was not doubt in Sasuke's mind that he loved Naruto, but he also knew that it was an obsessive kind of love, fueled and enflamed only all the more so by not being able to be near Naruto for five long years. Just standing there, looking at Naruto sparked desires within him that he couldn't name, nameless desires that were too powerful and dangerous for mere words.

Sasuke turned abruptly away from Naruto. He put a fist in his mouth as he stood, staring at the door, afraid to look back at Naruto because he wanted to touch him so badly. He bit his hand to calm himself, to try and quiet his arousal at seeing Naruto sleeping so peacefully. What was wrong with him? Why did he want Naruto so much? Sasuke removed his fist from his mouth, took a deep breath and walked toward the door. His body was trembling with a desire that was surely too strong to be healthy.

Just as he reached the door, a hand shot out from over his shoulder, pushing the door closed. Naruto had come up behind him so quietly, that Sasuke almost jumped at his sudden appearance. Sasuke's entire body heated up with Naruto standing so close to him.

Naruto didn't speak immediately, but instead gazed at Sasuke questioningly.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, no hints of sleepiness in his voice. Sasuke shrugged. He honestly wasn't sure why himself, but he didn't turn to face Naruto. Naruto was too close, much too close. Sasuke could feel his body responding to Naruto's warmth.

"How long have you been awake?" Sasuke asked. Naruto frowned.

"I wasn't able to fall asleep. I heard the door creak open and saw you slip in. I thought you might try and wake me up or something," Naruto confessed. Sasuke nodded, and put his hand on the doorknob and attempted to open it, but Naruto's hand was still pressed firmly on the door, preventing Sasuke from leaving.

"I think, I think maybe you should leave tomorrow, until we've figured things out for sure," Sasuke said, his voice catching. Why didn't Naruto realize what he was doing to him? Why didn't he realize what Sasuke could do to him? Sasuke wanted to talk to Naruto, to explain his desires, but he couldn't right now. His mind was in no state to explain anything properly to his friend. Right now, Naruto was in danger once again from Sasuke. Naruto had to leave before Sasuke hurt them both again.

"What?!" Naruto asked incredulously. He grabbed Sasuke's bare shoulders, spun him around, and slammed him into the back of the door. "What the fuck Sasuke? What are you talking about? I thought we could still be friends? I thought you wanted me to stay!" Naruto's eyes narrowed, confusion, anger, and hurt coursing through him at Sasuke's strange request. Sasuke looked back at Naruto with a determined glare.

"I can't do this Naruto. I won't be tormented like this again. It's not like last time. I crossed the line last time, and I hurt you. I don't want to hurt you again because when I do it kills me," Sasuke said.

"Teme! You were fine just earlier. Besides, I'm not a kid any more. You don't have to worry about-"

"You and I tonight, it was just like we went back in time. I don't want to go back in time! There's so much more that I want. I forced you once, and damnit I _want_ to do it again! It's not like last time. Last time, I wouldn't have dreamed of crossing that line, never dreamed of forcing myself upon you. Five years has taught me nothing. This time I can't pretend that I don't want you. I can't be around you unless you're willing for more, or else, I don't know what I'm capable of," Sasuke said, his hands coming to grip at Naruto's hips, pressing firmly against both skin and pajama bottoms. "How easy would it be to pull these off you and push you to the bed and enter you?" Sasuke murmured as he fingered the fabric, grasping at the elastic.

A pleasurable chill went through Naruto.

"How easy indeed?" Naruto groaned huskily, his eyes closing in bliss as Sasuke's fingers began to sneak inside the waistband, touching his skin. Naruto leaned his head close to whisper huskily in Sasuke's ear. "I'm old enough to make my own choices. Who says my choice would be to stop you?" Naruto's words acted like a breaking point for Sasuke.

Sasuke lost all sense of reason. He launched himself at Naruto, his lips pressing firmly against Naruto's, his entire body pressing against him, pushing him backwards away from the door, back towards the bed. It was Naruto who reached his hands to Sasuke's waistband and pulled down his pants first, roughly gliding the fabric over Sasuke's very hard erection. Sasuke pushed Naruto onto the bed as he hastily stepped out of his pants. He grabbed the foot holes of Naruto's pajama bottoms and pulled them off. Sasuke practically fell atop of Naruto as he grabbed the back of Naruto's head to help him force their lips together. Sasuke knew he was being rough, but he didn't know what other way to be with Naruto. Something had taken over him. Years of frustration, longing and pain desperately needed to be released and dealt with.

Naruto wasn't exactly being gentle back either. He was relishing in the feeling of Sasuke's utter loss of control. He knew Sasuke's actions had nothing to do with alcohol this time, and everything to do with the fact that only Naruto could arouse such a passion in Sasuke. He bucked underneath Sasuke, dragging his length harshly along Sasuke's length. Sasuke groaned into his mouth and bucked back. Naruto sank his teeth into Sasuke's lower lip, and then released the lip and began to suck on it. Sasuke forced his head away from Naruto's for a fraction of a second to readjust himself, and smashed his lips back onto the man's beneath his, his mouth moving and sucking, his body moving erratically, bucking and thrashing against Naruto's.

Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hair to force his mouth away from him so that his nose and mouth were free to breathe. He pushed Sasuke's head to the side as he panted. His body felt so good, so on fire as it moved against Sasuke's.

Both of them were sweating now, and sweating heavily at that. They began to stick and un-stick as they moved, and Sasuke moved his hands down so that he could grip onto Naruto's lower body so that he could gain more leverage to force himself against Naruto. Rubbing against each other so fast and furiously was beginning to cause an almost burning sensation with their frenzied friction. Naruto let out a hiss of pain while Sasuke hissed in pleasure at the feeling.

Sasuke's entire body tightened, and he gasped, his body shaking, as he came all over Naruto and himself. His entire body shook so much from his deep pleasure that his arms no longer held him, and he collapsed against Naruto.

"Fucking bastard, getting off without me. Well, you're still somewhat hard and so am I," Naruto groaned, annoyed that Sasuke had come so much and so furiously and yet was still hard. Naruto pushed at Sasuke, rolling him over onto his back. Sasuke's cum dripped down Naruto's front, trickling into his happy trail and along his cock. He moved so that his knees were along side Sasuke's body, propping himself up so that his ass was lifted over top of Sasuke's cock.

"Shit," Sasuke breathed excitedly, realizing what Naruto planned to do. He quickly spat into his hand used it to stroke himself, coating his cock with saliva and his own cum that had spilled onto him, trying to slicken himself. Naruto sidled up Sasuke's body to get a better position. Sasuke's shaft, which had only partially deflated from his release, came fully hardened again, bouncing excitedly in Sasuke's hand. Naruto grabbed his own butt cheeks and pulled at them somewhat to make his opening wider. Sasuke gripped his cock, and led the head to Naruto's entrance. Naruto began to push himself down onto the head of Sasuke's manhood.

Sasuke groaned at the pleasure. Naruto's entrance didn't want to take him in all the way. The small bit of tightened flesh that had engulfed his cock head felt exceedingly hot, teasing him with the way it squeezed at him, pumping out some pre-cum from his slit. Naruto grunted, biting his lip at the painful feeling of Sasuke's cock just barely inside of him. There was no Vaseline this time. Naruto pressed down slowly, his legs shaking in his effort to try and push Sasuke further inside of him. He huffed at the exertion, sweat pouring down his chest, mingling with the cum on his happy trail and cock.

"Don't - don't force yourself to - ngh!" Sasuke's words were cut off as he gasped. Naruto had stopped trying to take things slow and slammed his weight down onto Sasuke's cock. Naruto gripped both of Sasuke's upper arms. Sasuke then bent his arms so that he could grab Naruto's wrists with his hands, helping each other force their bodies together by pushing with their hips, and pulling at each other with their arms. Sasuke jerked his hips hard against Naruto's body, driving himself deeper, relishing the way Naruto's body seemed to tear open for him.

"Bastard. You, nnnn, wanted, nnnn, force," Naruto grunted as he slammed himself down onto Sasuke's cock. The first thrusts had hurt like hell, but now, now that he was getting used to the feel of Sasuke inside of him, it was giving way to that pained pleasure that had made him feel so good last time. Sasuke pounded into Naruto from below him, and Naruto stared down at Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes were dangerous, and Naruto couldn't help but grin just as dangerously back as he controlled their speed and thrusts as he rode atop of Sasuke.

Sasuke was lost in his lust. Being forced inside of Naruto had hurt a lot more than he would have expected, but the painful friction felt so good at the same time. Naruto was abusing his body in the most pleasurable and erotic way possible. Naruto's insides clenched and unclenched at times, yet in general they began to loosen around him as Naruto's body adjusted to Sasuke's intrusion.

"My cock," Naruto moaned at the lack of attention where he wanted it the most. Sasuke unwrapped his hands from Naruto's arms (with slight difficulty) and rearranged it so that his hands wrapped themselves around Naruto's arousal. He began pumping at him. "Damnit Sasuke! Not so hard!" Naruto hissed as Sasuke had begun to show his enthusiasm by pulling at Naruto a little too hard. He loosened his grip and instead picked up the speed with which he jerked Naruto off.

Their bodies smacked and slammed into each other, Sasuke enthusiastically pumping away at Naruto's cock. Neither of them lasted very long, but after waiting so long to be with each other, it felt like a pleasurable eternity before Naruto came, followed by Sasuke. Naruto squirted his semen all over Sasuke's front, his hand coming up and smacking Sasuke's hand away to pump at his own cock as he came. Sasuke released himself inside of Naruto, his body jerking upwards inside his lover as he came, crying out Naruto's name. Sasuke's body jerked several times as he released himself. His cock began to deflate as he felt his own cum dripping down Naruto's opening onto his stomach and now shrinking cock. Naruto pulled off of Sasuke, as Sasuke's softened cock came out with a slickened popping sound.

Sasuke winced slightly as it did so. He knew he would probably be sore in the morning, but not as sore as Naruto. Then again, with how fast Naruto healed, maybe he wouldn't feel the pain.

Naruto stood up from the bed, frowning as semen dripped from his ass, stomach, and cock while sweat dripped down every part of his body. The moonlight caught the wetness of his body, illuminating his gorgeous features, and the way that his hair was plastered to his face.

"I wonder if this is what a melting snowman feels like," Naruto asked curiously as he looked down at all the fluids dripping from him. Sasuke groaned at the comment. He grabbed a pillow and threw it at Naruto.

"What kind of moronic thing is that to say?" Sasuke demanded, slightly putout.

"What do you want me to say, the sex was great?" Naruto deadpanned. "I thought that was kind of obvious," Naruto said grinning. He picked up the sheet from his bed and began to wipe his body down. He was still moist, and Sasuke just watched in exhausted, pleasured bemusement as Naruto began to wipe _him_ off as well.

"You know," Sasuke drawled lazily, "there's always the shower to clean up." Naruto looked at him thoughtfully before he got a mischievous grin on his face.

"I'll race you to your bathroom, nude," Naruto said. The darkness prevented from Sasuke seeing Naruto fully, but he could imagine him wiggling his eyebrows at him. Sasuke sprang to his feet, suddenly feeling very energetic again at the prospect of getting a shower with Naruto.

"You're on."

* * *

Sasuke woke up the next morning feel sore yet sated. His bed had never felt so warm and comforting despite the aches in some very sensitive areas. He looked over at the empty space where Naruto had laid the previous night. Sasuke yawned and stretched, unconcerned with the fact that Naruto wasn't there. He had heard him get up about forty or so minutes ago. Actually, Naruto's loud stomach growl had been what had woken him the first time - and he presumed Naruto had woken up to it too. He figured that Naruto was probably downstairs still eating.

Sasuke winced as he swung his feet over the side of his bed. Naruto had been kind enough in the shower to make sure that he was well prepared before entering him, but his insides still stung slightly if he moved in a certain way. Not to mention his cock felt slightly raw at the way it had been forced into Naruto's tightness. He grumbled at how good something could feel at the time, yet be so uncomfortable the next day.

Nevertheless, his pain couldn't cloud his happiness. Call him corny, but he couldn't help but fondly remember what had happened between them in the shower. He wasn't even talking about the sex either; well, not _just_ about the sex.

As Naruto had pressed into him from behind, Sasuke had murmured that he loved Naruto, and Naruto had murmured the same words back.

Getting dressed quickly, Sasuke walked down the steps to his kitchen, his face splitting into the smallest of grins. Naruto, Sakura, Haruka, and two of the other members of his staff, Taki and Isanai, were sitting down to breakfast, Naruto talking animatedly about something. Sakura was laughing, and Haruka looked like she had been trying to take a sip of her orange juice for some time, but feared doing so in case Naruto made her burst out laughing; Isanai was pounding the back of his friend Taki who was half choking on his cereal from laughing so hard.

"...after I asked Sasuke if he could get his money back, well then a random student appeared. His name was Lee. Out of _nowhere_ Gai-sensei and Lee start embracing each other and sobbing--"

"You forgot the part about Gai saying good morning and about the spring time of youth," Sasuke said amused, recognizing that Naruto was retelling their first judo lesson.

"Oh yeah, well, I'll come back to that. Sasuke and I were ready to leave when one of the other kids told us it was worthwhile to stay. So, we did, but Gai was such a whacked out teacher," Naruto said. Sasuke nodded.

"Good morning Sasuke," Sakura said, turning around slowly to face Sasuke, a bright smile on her face. "You should take these," Sakura said, handing Sasuke two pills and a glass of water out for Sasuke to take.

"What are these for?" Sasuke asked shortly.

"Well, last night I woke up, and I heard you taking a shower. I heard you, er, pounding something, and then yell out, so I figured this would help with any, er, lingering pain," Sakura said, smiling so knowingly that Sasuke knew that she had heard him and Naruto in the shower the night before. Sasuke blushed, grabbed the two pills, and swallowed them without taking a sip of water. As Sasuke sat down next to him, he noticed Naruto blushing slightly too. He glanced around and saw that Sakura, Haruka, Taki, and Isanai were all staring at him with the same knowing expression. Sasuke growled, wondering if he should fire his three staff memebers and send Sakura back to her parent's house.

"If you don't all stop smiling like knowing perverts I'll kick you all out," Sasuke threatened, and the four turned away from him.

"Four floors up and they could still hear you. I told you that you were loud," Naruto whispered, grinning.

"Shut-up. I bet they were all outside the door," Sasuke said a little more loudly. He was unsurprised to see Haruka and Sakura turn slightly red. However, it appeared the two males had also been told about it this morning before breakfast as they hastily turned away from him too.

Still, Sasuke couldn't resist the urge to smile. He had forgotten the banter that he and his family had had over the breakfast table. Normally he didn't join in for the conversations that Sakura and the staff had. With Naruto there, he felt like he could open up again. It was a nice feeling.

* * *

"Maybe I can just move my room down here permanently," Sasuke grumbled the following evening, wondering how he could have enjoyed having so many people in his house only the morning before. Naruto snickered.

"If you weren't so loud they wouldn't tease you about it," Naruto said as he and Sasuke headed down into the secret room to Sasuke's art gallery. They had decided to go down there for the night since the previous night they had apparently kept a few people up. More specifically, Sasuke's yells of pleasure had kept them awake.

Yesterday morning after breakfast Naruto had gone over to visit the Yamanaka's who had been more than pleased to see him. Kenji had even given him a grudging apology for everything that had happened between them in their youth. When Naruto told Sasuke about it, Sasuke had grumbled that an apology wasn't enough, but the incredulous look along with the reminder of Sasuke's own history with Naruto had shut him up.

That night they had gone out with Sakura as promised, and had both retired to bed early. Naruto had been expecting to sleep after their dinner out. Sasuke hadn't.

Naruto quickly realized that Sasuke really seemed quite unable to keep his hands off of him when they were alone, which surprised him slightly. Sasuke and he had never been touchy-feely before, and Sasuke always kept his distance when others were around, but it was as though Sasuke became a different person when the two of them were alone together. Naruto had a feeling that Sasuke's need to be near him had a lot to do with the fact that Sasuke feared Naruto leaving him again. Not that he minded. Sasuke wasn't the only one that had a healthy and excitable sex drive. The problem had to do with the fact that the two of them were a little too loud for the rest of the people that Sasuke now housed under his roof.

"My own house. Sneaking around in my own house," Sasuke grumped. Naruto grinned again. He knew that Sasuke would be lonely if everyone left. Well, that wasn't quite true. Naruto would still be there.

"You know it's fun sneaking around here. I think we should do it in some of the other rooms. We should go into Sakura's room at some point-"

"_No_. She probably has a video camcorder already setup it hopes of catching us at it. I swear that I heard her outside the door last night."

"Well I couldn't hear much of anything over your screams-"

"I was not screaming that much. I screamed twice, you moron-"

"-each time was so long that it felt like longer. Besides, who cares if she hears us?"

"Exhibitionist."

"Prick."

"Dobe."

"Bastard."

"Idiot."

"G-g-ghost!" Naruto gasped. Sasuke frowned and sighed.

"Honestly Naruto, when will you stop referring to me as being some sort of haunting creature? My house is not haunted," Sasuke stated firmly.

"G-g-ghost! T-th-there!" Naruto squeaked as he pointed his finger over Sasuke's shoulders, his whole body trembling. Sasuke rolled his eyes as he turned around.

"Naruto there's no gho-" but Sasuke's sentence died on his lips. "Ghost!" Sasuke gasped himself.

Behind Sasuke floated the hazy outline of a woman in her late thirties. Her transparent and ghostly black hair was swept back in a ponytail. She smiled down at them. Sasuke stared at her for a few seconds, and then blinked hard.

"Mom?" Sasuke breathed out, as the ghostly apparition in front of him smiled even more widely.

"I've been waiting here for years. I couldn't go on, knowing how lonely you were. Now I know that I know that you'll be with someone, I can pass on. You won't leave again, right Naruto?" Sasuke's ghostly mothered asked. Naruto's mouth was wide open as he shook his head slowly back and forth, stating that no, he wouldn't leave again. He tried to say this verbally, but his voice had been frozen in his throat. "I love you Sasuke. Take care of him Naruto." She smiled at them both before disappearing into nothingness as quickly as she had appeared.

Sasuke and Naruto turned to each other, their faces as white as if they had (ironically enough) just seen a ghost.

"GHOST!" They both yelled to each other before turning back around and sprinting back up the steps, only to find that someone had pushed the boxes back in front of the sliding door, trapping them inside. Naruto and Sasuke began to frantically pound on the door, yelling for someone to let them out...

* * *

Years Later…

"You're tweaking the story. There was no ghost, and I certainly did _not_ run screaming back up the steps like you did," Sasuke replied grumpily. He crossed his arms and turned slightly on the couch in the middle of the living room to glare at Naruto who was sitting next to him.

"Okay, okay, so Sasuke didn't really run back up the steps banging to come out of the haunted room-"

"There was no ghost. It is not haunted-"

"There was too a ghost, and if you had seen her, then you would have run back up with me. You're Mom was there and told me to take care of you. I'm changing the story only slightly so that she has a feel for what you would have been like if you had seen it too. If you had just turned around when I pointed you _would_ have seen it and ran up the steps."

"I could tell you were playing a practical joke on me, so I therefore didn't look."

"I was NOT joking with you, she was there."

"You were clearly imagining things. Probably a catch of the light-"

"Will you two finish the story already! What else happened?" the black-haired girl that was sitting at the feet of the couch interrupted them. She was angry that her two fathers-like figures were bickering. They did it quite often, but they had been so good about not doing so while retelling how they became friends and then gotten back together. For years she had been told that she was too young to hear the story. Now that they were finally at the ending, she couldn't help but pout at the pause.

"It's getting late. You should probably go to bed," Naruto said as he checked his watch.

"It's only 11:30. I'm _fifteen_ for crying out loud," she said exasperated. To help further plead her case, she added, "Please Daddy?" Naruto's eye twitched, and Sasuke couldn't help but smirk. They had both acted like father figures to her. She and Naruto had become particularly close, and whenever she needed to get him on her side, she used that term with him. It didn't work on Sasuke, and they both knew it. He was just Dad.

"But Sakura-chan told us that we had to make sure you were in bed early enough because you have a test tomorrow," Naruto mumbled.

"Yeah well, I don't think Mom would have liked hearing that when you were supposed to be helping me study, you ended up telling me about your pornographic relationship-"

"That's not true! We didn't give you any details, Mumei!"

"You didn't have to. I've caught the two of you so many times that I could make it seem like you had," Mumei said mischievously. Naruto glared.

"That's blackmail," Naruto said angrily, crossing his arms.

"And if she says that, I'll tell her mother about those stories I found her reading online," Sasuke said easily. Mumei's mouth opened slightly at having her blackmail attempt thrown back in her face. "But we won't do that because we'll finish the story anyway," Sasuke added. Mumei beamed.

Naruto muttered something about Uchiha's and their evil ways and the evilness that spreads across families and down through the generations. Sasuke and Mumei ignored him as Sasuke finished off the story.

"Well, aside from the ghost that _wasn't there_, there wasn't much more drama between us from then to the time you were born, except that Naruto started being tested on. And that's about it. Time for bed."

Mumei's mouth hung open.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. That's it? That's how it ends? What happened to all of the other angst between the two of you? I mean, you made it seem like something bad was going to happen when Daddy went to get the tests done. There's more to it. I know there is. Like, why don't we have the house staff any more? When did Iruka start staying here on the weekend?" Mumei said, pouting, her blue eyes looking back and forth between her two Dads.

"That's another story. Time for bed," Naruto said beaming.

"I'll figure it out," Mumei sighed as she picked herself up off from the floor and headed up to bed, grumbling.

Naruto and Sasuke both turned around to make sure that she had indeed ascended the stairs before speaking again.

"Do you think we should have told her?" Naruto asked worriedly.

"We will sometime, but Sakura should really be here when we tell her," Sasuke said wisely.

"I think she suspects something," Naruto noted. Sasuke almost rolled his eyes.

"It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Iruka always talks about how you nearly died doing the experiments, and now you have that strange spiral tattoo that hides the scar on your stomach? That scar should have healed with the aid or the parasite."

"I wasn't talking about that. I think the tattoo hides the scar pretty well. _I_ was implying why she always asks why she looks more like you and me. She looks nothing at all like Sakura. And I think she also suspects something about the time frame we gave her," Naruto said.

"That's because you almost slipped and said four years instead of five. That would have been a dead give away that something was off. She would have figured out that the baby that Sakura carried would be at least sixteen now, not just fifteen like she is." Sasuke and Naruto both sighed, thinking back.

"Sakura nearly lost it when her baby was a still birth," Naruto said, frowning. "You did too. You had this look on your face as though you were doomed to never have any relatives again."

"Yeah, and then you went behind my back and did that experiment that nearly killed you," Sasuke said angrily.

"Well, we wouldn't have Meumi with us now if I hadn't, now would we?" Naruto beamed.

"You and she almost died during the C section. Those prosthetic female organs and hormones messed up your insides. Meumi's egg was the only one of over _one thousand_ of eggs that your body produced; and hers was the only usable one. Those hormones were supposed to make you produce them perfectly."

"Well excuse me. Last time I checked, it was called experimentation. It was a miracle I even produced them at all," Naruto grumbled.

"At least now the doctors know that if you don't have a weird disease that helps you heal extremely fast, that any male trying to carry a child will die in the first three months. You're lucky you survived for _seven _months."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto grumbled again, and sighed as he deliberately changed the subject. "I'm glad we're raising her as though Sakura's her Mom though. Can you imagine all the questions she'd be asked at school if people knew I was the one who carried her?"

"Yes, and I can also imagine all the questions they'd ask you. Stop worrying about it. We don't need to tell her that we're her biological parents. We raised her, and that's all that matters."

"Of course, we'll need to talk to Sakura about it first," Naruto repeated. "Tsunade told me that Sakura has completely blocked out the death of hers and Sai's baby. She really thinks that Meumi her biological daughter. It'd kill her to make her relive that," Naruto murmured.

"It's strange how one's mind can make up stories to prevent pain. She saw that therapist for ages. First losing her husband, and then her baby? You're right. We can't tell Meumi without making sure Sakura could handle that mentally. I couldn't do that to Sakura after she pushed the two of us together."

Naruto yawned, and stretched his arms, his shirt riding up to reveal a spiral tattoo to hide the scar where the C-Section had almost gone deadly wrong.

"I think I'm ready for bed," Naruto said. Sasuke grinned mischievously.

"I think I'm ready to recreate our first night together," Sasuke said, as he pulled off his tie suggestively. Naruto raised his eyebrow.

"I'll race you to our bedroom."

"You're on."

**The End. **

Owari. It's over. ::sigh:: I'm up in the air about this ending. I have everything in it that I wanted, but it didn't come out the way I thought it would. I may edit it at some point, but that's how it stands. Hope you all enjoyed it, and thank all of you who have stuck with this story from the beginning! I loved reading all of your reviews.

FYI, I have also recently finished my other story, "Restless" if you want to give that a read as well. Thanks again for all of your support while writing this story, and I hope that at least some of you liked this ending. - Jelp


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